Websites and Local Area Marketing
A website itself is an exceptional below the-line marketing tool and it can be created at a low price and have an instant impact on your company. Your franchisor or corporation probably boasts a company-wide website, which makes a lot of sense, so that the deatails and cost can be distributed across the entire organisation. The website should be a two-way medium that puts you in touch with your target audience and explains in detail your offerings and how to reach your organisation. It should gather and distribute leads and should collect prospect details so that you can construct a database of potential clients.
Websites have the capability to reach world-wide audiences, which takes you out of your local area! Regardless, websites can also be tailored in such a way that if someone does a search for your products in your area, you can be found.
This is important because more and more people are going to the Internet first before reaching for the Yellow Pages. A professionally produced and presented website can increase the credibility of your company regardless if you are working out of a one-bedroom apartment or an expensive office block.
Your website can answer the same questions over and over and over again while you sleep and can increase the life of your printed material, radio and television advertisements by incorporating them on the site. You can introduce forms and gather information as you require and provide your clients with valuable reports whilst collecting their details for your prospect database. The site can also be another cost-effective retail outlet for you without the cost of hard real estate.
Believe it or not, shy people not willing to contact you by phone are able to gather information and if they wish to pursue things, they will often email you via the contacts section of the website.
There is much written about websites and how they should be produced and what they should incorporate. Suffice to say that the content you display on your website is very important because it has the potential to become the foundation for enticing clients to your site and positioning your company as the leader in its field. By regularly updating the content on your site, you can also attract search engines and, if the content is worthy, other businesses may build inbound links to your site.
There is some argument as to how many pages should constitute your website ranging from one simple tellall/sell-all page to adding as much content as you like. Regardless, it’s crucial to know that the heading or first line of the web page is the most important and the next in line is the first paragraph. Why is this so? Well, a web page is similar to a newspaper in that people will scan for headlines before either selecting something they like or moving on to the next page. Keep the reader interested with clear, concise. and confronting headlines and strong first paragraphs.
Web pages are one of the most easily tracked marketing techniques available. In fact, you can obtain an incredible amount of statistics from hits through to hot spots within a page. Websites are also fantastic for companies that can’t find enough room on their business cards to explain their products and services!
It’s one thing to have a fantastic website; it’s an absolutely different thing to have one that can be found.
For internet marketing Brisbane, Brisbane web design and SEO services Brisbane, contact Search Tempo today.
Sphere: Related ContentOil Paints and Painting
Artists’ oil colours are made by combining dry powder pigments with particular refined linseed oil until it reaches a stiff paste thickness and grinding it by harsh friction in steel roller mills. The perfection of the colour is essential. The usual standard is a smooth, buttery paste, not stringy or long or tacky. When a transient or mobile element is required by the artist, a liquid painting medium such as pure gum turpentine must be combined with the mixture. In order to accelerate drying, a siccative, or liquid drier, is commonly used.
First-grade brushes are made in two kinds: red sable (hair from various members of the weasel family) and chemically whitened hog bristles. They can be purchased in numbered sizes for each of four regular shapes: round (pointed), flat, bright (flat shape but is shorter and less supple), and oval (flat but is bluntly pointed). Red sable brushes are generally chosen for a smoother, detailed style of technique. The painting knife, a declicately tempered, thin version of a palette knife, is a common tool for applying oil colours in a robust manner.
The usual support for an oil painting is a canvas created from pure European linen of sturdy close weave. The canvas is cut to the required size and pulled over a frame, generally wood, and then secured by tacks or, in the 20th century, by staples. In order to lessen the absorbency of the fabric and create a consistent surface, a primer or ground may be applied and is left to dry before painting. The most generally utilised primers for this have been gesso, rabbit-skin glue, and lead white. If density and a consistent texture are preferred rather than elasticity and texture, a wooden or processed paperboard panel, sized or primed, should be used. Other supports, including paper and different textiles and metals, have also been tried.
A coat of painting varnish is often set on to a completed oil painting to prevent any atmospheric attacks, minor abrasions, or an harmful accumulation of dirt. This film of varnish might be taken off without damage by experts using isopropyl alcohol and other such household solvents. The painting varnish also takes the surface to a consistent lustre and brings the depth of tone and colour intensity really to the look originally created by the artist in the wet paint. Some painters today, in particular those who do not favour deep, intense colouring, will prefer a mat, or lustreless, finish in oil paintings.
The majority of oil paintings from prior to the 19th century were built in layers. The first layer was a blank, uniform field of thin paint known as a ground. The ground graduated the glare of the primer and allowed a gentle colour base on which to build images. The shapes and figures in the painting would be roughly blocked in from shades of white, and gray or neutral green, red, or brown. The resulting field of monochromatic light and dark colours were termed the underpainting. Forms could be further defined with either solid paint or scumbles; non-uniform, thinly applied layers of opaque pigment that imparts a variety of effects. At the last step, transparent layers of pure colour called glazes were then applied to display luminosity, depth, and brilliance to the forms, and highlights could be effected with thick, textured patches of paint called impastos.
Oil as a painting medium is recorded as early as the 11th century. The method of easel painting with oil colours, however, stems directly from 15th-century tempera-painting techniques. Simple improvements in how to refine linseed oil and the availability of volatile solvents from 1400 coincided with a requirement for than pure egg-yolk tempera, to meet the developing needs of the Renaissance (see tempera painting). At first, oil paints and varnishes were employed to glaze tempera panels that had been painted with a traditional linear draftsmanship. The technically brilliant, jewel-like works by the 15th-century Flemish artist Jan van Eyck, for example, were finished with this new technique.
In the 16th century, oils flourished as the ultimate painting material in Venice. At the beginning of the 17th century, Venetian painters were proficient in utilising the basic elements of oil painting, particularly in their use of a number of layers of glazing. Canvas of linen, after a long time of growth, replaced wood panelling as the preferred support.
A 17th-century master of the oil technique was Velázquez, a Spanish painter in the Venetian tradition, whose highly economical but sure brushstrokes have often been emulated, particularly in portraiture. The Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens influenced later painters in the style in which he loaded his light colours opaquely, in juxtaposition to thin, transparent darks and shadows. A third great 17th-century master of oil painting was the Dutch painter Rembrandt. In his paintings, a single brushstroke would effectively depict form; cumulative strokes created great textural depth, combining the rough and the smooth, the thick and the thin. A system of loaded whites and transparent darks is finally enhanced by glazed effects, blendings, and highly controlled impastos.
Other notable influences on the techniques of later easel painting are the smooth, thinly painted, deliberately planned, tight styles. A great many admired works (e.g., those of Johannes Vermeer) were executed with smooth graduated blends of colours to achieve subtly shadowed forms and delicate colour variations.
The technical requirements of some schools of modern painting cannot be attained by use of traditional genres and techniques, however, and some abstract painters - and some modern traditional style painters - have demonstrated a desire for an entirely different plastic flow or viscosity that cannot be formed from oil paint and its conventional additives. Some require a larger variety of thick and/or thin applications and a quicker rate of drying. Some mix coarsely grained substances with the colours to create textures, some artists used oil paints in heavier thicknesses than is usual, and a large part have begun to favour acrylic paints, as they are more versatile and dry rapidly.
Interested in oil painting? For art supplies Brisbane, including canvas art supplies and artists supplies, visit or call the Discount Art Warehouse.
Sphere: Related ContentWhat are Hydrocarbons?
Hydrocarbons are those in a class of organic chemical compounds formed purely of the elements carbon and hydrogen. The carbon atoms join together to create the framework of the compound; the hydrogen atoms join to them in a number of varied configurations. Hydrocarbons are the principal constituents of petroleum and natural gas. They might be fuels and lubricants as well as raw materials for the construction of plastics, fibres, rubbers, solvents, explosives, and industrial chemicals.
Lots of hydrocarbons are created in nature. In addition to part of fossil fuels, hydrocarbons could be seen in trees and plants, as, for example, in the form of pigments called carotenes that present in carrots and green leaves. A little over 98 percent of natural crude rubber is partly hydrocarbon polymer, a chainlike molecule that consists of numerous units linked up.
Hydrocarbons are insoluble in water and are less dense than water, so they should float on its surface. They are generally soluble with one another, however, as well as with some particular organic solvents. All hydrocarbons will be fully combustible. If burned fully with sufficient oxygen, they will produce carbon dioxide and water, releasing heat. If there is insufficent oxygen, the combustion will yield carbon monoxide.
The structures and chemistry of single hydrocarbons depend in large part on the sorts of chemical bonds that combine the atoms of the constituent molecules. A carbon atom can possess four single bonds, or it may form double or triple bonds. A hydrogen atom will have a single bond.
Hydrocarbons are categorized in several classes based on their structure. The two fundamental classes are aliphatic and aromatic. Aliphatic hydrocarbons may be constructed of molecules in which the carbon atoms are attached in chains (known as acyclic) or in rings (called alicyclic, or carbocyclic). Aliphatic hydrocarbons also will be allocated depending on the types of bonds between the carbon atoms. For aliphatic hydrocarbons, when each bond is single (called sigma bonds), the compound is said to be saturated. Those compounds are allocated into categories as alkanes or cycloalkanes. If two or more bonds connect any two carbon atoms, the hydrocarbon is known as unsaturated. The bonds could be double, as in the alkenes or alkadienes, or triple, as in the alkynes. Certain compounds contain both types of multiple bonds within the same molecule.
The base alkanes are methane, ethane , and propane. These compounds exist in a single structure for each. Higher elements of the series, for example butane, might be compounded in two varied procedures, according to whether the carbon chain is straight or branched. Those compounds are called isomers; such are compounds that have a matching molecular formula but have different arrangements of the atoms. Because of this, they frequently can possess varied chemical properties.
Cycloalkanes are ring structures that have two fewer hydrogen atoms in the molecule of the corresponding alkane. Lots have not just one ring, but many. Six-membered rings are of note because of the fact that they can be seen in many natural products, notably the steroids. Cyclic structures also may be isomers where two molecules change purely in the spatial arrangement of substituent groups.
The key commercial sources of alkanes include petroleum and natural gas. Singular higher alkanes and cycloalkanes generally are synthesized from reactions designed for a specific product. These saturated hydrocarbons can also be synthesized with the relative unsaturated molecules, by hydrogenation (inclusion of hydrogen). Saturated hydrocarbons are generally inert; i.e., when in room temperature they remain unaffected by common acids, alkalies, and oxidizing or reducing agents.
For hydrocarbon storage tanks and self-bundled hydrocarbon tanks, contact Logitank.com.au
Sphere: Related ContentTen Good Reasons to Consider Synthetic Grass
Gone are the days of synthetic grass looking cheap and plastic. These days new generation synthetic lawn is lush, soft, extremely realistic and difficult to tell apart from the real thing.
Everyone loves the natural look of a lawn, but who has the time these days? With artificial grass you get all the perks of real grass without ever any chance of dead patches, muddy patches or the weekend maintenance routine.
Never mow again
Imagine having your weekends available to do what you love most without ever having to rev up the mower again. Not only will you never be caught out by unexpected visitors and an untidy lawn, you’ll have the calm of never having to listen to that mower motor pacing up and down your yard ever again!
Save your water
Only grass that grows needs water, so save it for something more necessary, like drinking a nice glass of it while you are admiring your lawn.
No nasties
Don’t worry about having to use smelly fertilisers, stepping in bindis, or dealing with seasonal hayfever. With synthetic grass this is all a thing of the past, you can sit on it, lie on it, roll in it and get up without being covered in mud or grass clippings.
Can be installed anywhere grass won’t grow or you don’t want to mow
Synthetic grass doesn’t need sunlight , it is fine in shady areas and will keep them looking lush while still providing you with many years of usable space. Being synthetic it doesn’t mind being in constant direct sunlight or harsh conditions, this grass is made to last. Synthetic grass is also at home around the pool, good quality grasses are UV, salt and chlorine resistant.
It might look delicate but its durability will surprise you
As well as homes these grasses are used in schools and council public areas, even dog runs and kennels. Just by viewing these new generation artificial lawns you would be forgiven for thinking they are fragile, but in fact they are extremely hardy. They can stand up to heavy daily traffic, children, pets, are non-flammable and, you can expect high quality synthetic grass to last as long as high quality pavers.
It is available for DIY
For those that are willing, you can install your own synthetic grass. Find a good DIY installation guide to do it yourself and save some money.
Turn unusable space into your favourite place
Synthetic lawn is so inviting, you will find that areas that were never used in the past become your resting and/or play areas.
You don’t need to leave home to have a practice hit on the green.
If golf is your thing then what could be more luxurious than planting a putting green in your backyard. There are a variety of options when it comes to artificial putting greens. Everything from DIY putting kits through to PGA level greens just like those in the homes of famous golfers, these PGA level greens allow you to chip and pitch from a distance, with a realistic roll from every angle of the green.
Synthetic lawn is used on the fringe of the green and can expand out to truly blend the putting green into the garden landscape.
Of course synthetic putting greens have all the same low maintenance benefits of synthetic grass. So these greens will be ready for play when you are.
Perfect for Children’s play areas
Synthetic grass has always been popular in day care centres, but synthetic lawn takes it to a whole new level of softness. Synthetic grass doesn’t conceal hidden sharps the way that sand or chipped bark can, and synthetic grass can be installed to comply with soft fall standards for use where play equipment is used.
Perfect for pets
Pets adore synthetic grass and it is often used in luxury dog kennels.
Urine will simply soak through and make its way into the ground below, unfortunately there is no way of magically making number 2’s disappear so they will need to be picked up just as you would with real grass, however neither one of these will damage your grass. Removal of waste is purely for you and your dog to avoid any inconvenience.
For dogs that are diggers there are special installation techniques that will ensure your grass lasts as long as it should so make sure you mention this when you are being quoted on installation.
Enduroturf is Australian made, is available Australia-wide and recognised as being one of Australia’s largest suppliers and installers of synthetic grass. Brisbane is home to Enduroturf’s head office but you can find our synthetic grass in Melbourne, Geelong , Canberra, Sydney, Cairns, Toowoomba, , Tasmania , Alice Springs, Adelaide and we of course also provide our synthetic grass in Perth. Call us today for a free, no obligation quote or visit us at enduroturf.com.au
Sphere: Related ContentWhat is Sculpture?
Sculpture is an artistic form in which hard or plastic materials are worked into 3D works of art. The designs may be embodied in freestanding objects, in reliefs on surfaces, or in environments that range from tableaux to contexts around the spectator. A huge variety of material are used, including clay, wax, stone, metal, fabric, glass, wood, plaster, rubber, and random “found” objects. Materials may be carved, modeled, molded, cast, wrought, welded, sewn, assembled, or purely shaped and combined.
Sculpture is not a fixed label that can be applied to a permanently restricted category of objects or set of activities. It is, rather, an art that grows and is changing and continually extends the range of activities and evolving new kinds of objects. The scope of the term was much wider in the later half of the 20th century than it had been merely two or three decades prior, and in the evolving state of visual art at the dawn of the 21st century, it is impossible to predict what its future possibilities are likely to see.
Certain features which in previous centuries were thought to be essential to sculpture but are now no longer present in a great deal of modern sculpture and thus no longer form part of a definition. One of the most important of these is representation. Previous to the 20th century, sculpture was considered a representational art; imitating forms in life, that were mostly of human figures but also inanimate objects, such as game, utensils, and books. From the turn of the 20th century, however, sculpture also began to include nonrepresentational forms. It has long been accepted that forms of such functional 3-D objects as furniture, pots, and buildings might be expressive and beautiful without being in any way representational. It was only during the 20th century that nonfunctional, nonrepresentational, three-D artworks began to be produced.
Before the 20th century, sculpture was considered primarily an art of solid form, or mass. It is true that the negative elements of sculpture — the voids and hollows underneath and between its solid forms — have usually been to some kind of degree an inextricable part of the design, but this role was secondary. In a great deal of modern sculpture, however, the attention has shifted, and the spatial roles have become dominant. Spatial sculpture is currently a wholly accepted field of the art.
It was also taken for granted in the sculpture of the past that its components were of a constant shape and size and, with the exception of items such as Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s Diana (a monumental weather vane), did not move. With the contemporary development of kinetic sculpture, neither the immobility nor immutability of its elements can remain to be viewed as essential to the definition of sculpture.
Additionally, sculpture since the 20th century was no longer restricted to the two traditional forming procedures of carving and modeling, or to such traditional natural materials including stone, metal, wood, ivory, bone, and clay. Because present-day sculptors use any materials and methods of manufacture that they decide on, the art can no longer be identified for the use of any special kind of materials or techniques.
During all this evolution, there is probably only one thing that stays constant in sculpture, and it endures as the foremost abiding concern of sculptors: the art is a part of the visual arts that is specially concerned with the creation of art in three dimensions.
Sculpture should be either in the round or in relief. A sculpture in the round is a separate, detached piece in its own right, leading a similar independent existence in the world as a human body or a chair. A sculpture in relief does not exist in this reality. It projects from and is attached to or is an integral part of some other object that may serve either as a background against which it is set or a matrix from whence it projects.
The actual three-D nature of sculpture in the round puts limitations on its scope in a few respects in comparison with the scope of painting. Sculpture does not cast the illusion of space by purely optical means, or invest its forms with atmosphere and light as we can see in a painting. Sculpture does have a reality, a vivid physical presence that is simply denied to the pictorial arts. Different forms of sculpture are tangible as well as visible, and they can appeal strongly and directly to both tactile and visual senses. Even the visually impaired, including those who are congenitally blind, can construct and appreciate certain pieces of sculpture. It was, in fact, said by the 20th-century art critic Sir Herbert Read that sculpture should be seen as primarily an art of touch and that the origins of sculptural sensibility can be based in the pleasure one feels in fondling things.
All 3D forms are perceived as possessing an expressive character along with solely geometric properties. They are viewed the observer as delicate, aggressive, flowing, taut, relaxed, dynamic, soft, and such. By exploiting the expressive qualities of form, a sculptor is able to create imagery in which subject matter and expressiveness mutually reinforce each other. This imagery will go beyond the simple presentation of fact and evoke a vast range of subtle and powerful emotions.
The aesthetic raw material used for sculpture is, so to speak, the whole realm of expressive 3-D form. A sculpture can draw upon what we know already exists in the endless worlds of natural and man-made form, or it may be an art of genuine invention. It has been mastered to express a deep range of human emotions and feelings from the most tender and delicate to the most violent and ecstatic.
All human beings, inherently involved from birth with the world of three-dimensional form, learn something of its structural and expressive properties and will have emotional reactions to them. This combination of intellect and sensitive reaction, known as a sense of form, is able to be cultivated and refined. It is to the sense of form that sculpture primarily appeals.
For art supplies Brisbane, including canvas art supplies and artists supplies, visit or call the Discount Art Warehouse. Become a member for free and get 10% discount on future purchases.
Sphere: Related ContentWhy use Promotional Products?
In the advertising industry the performance of an advert is measured by:- How many people it reaches, how many times they perceive it, do they relate to it?, do they recall what it was selling?, and crucially, will it make them buy?
We cannot think of any other sort of advertising that is as effective as promotional products at delivering you exposure to customers and producing goodwill that leads to sales.
Consider these examples:-
1. A low cost item like a promotional fridge magnet, custom notepad or promotional drink bottle will offer your company a large amount of repeat advertising exposure to your customer. Your logo/message (or even something as subtle as your telephone number) will always be at hand - they will not have to use the Yellow Pages to find your (and your competitors) details.
2. Being given a mid priced item like a promotional desk clock, a branded mousemat or a logo printed coffee mug will prove your existing customers that you appreciate them, they will thank you for it, which in turn will produce goodwill towards you and your business. Furthermore it will give years of daily exposure to your logo/message. The cost of pre exposure (to your message) will be miniscule.
3. Top clients and staff are integral to our business and they will be to yours too. Study has shown that happy staff are productive staff and you will know how much business, say, your top twenty five customers provide. A $30 thank you gift will represent less than 1/1000 of most employees yearly pay!
It may perhaps be a smaller fraction of a contract you are tendering for or the annual sales volume of clients. Some of the most successful companies we know are not huge payers but focus their attention to on staff contentment and showing them they are appreciated - they often use Corporate Gifts. Patting someone on the back and telling them they are wonderful is good but the act of giving is a lot more powerful.
What are Promotional Products?
Promotional Products are gifts that can be decorated with a clients name, logo or message on them. The industry is rapidly growing and has a value of $3.0 billion p.a. in Australia. Marketers need to brand their organisation, product, or service is the reason they use Promotion Product’s items and services.
An abundance of other media options are available - newspaper, radio, and direct mail to name several - however these do not offer the accountability offered by Promotional Product Marketing. Promotional Products succeed, as not only do they communicate your message but your client will thank you for them.
Consider the benefits of Promotional Product Marketing outlined below:
Targeted - Promotional Products only convey your message to the people you are appealing to. No non-prospects, no wasted circulation.
Longevity - A quality Promotional Product will be around for years and is used on a daily basis by your client. No other media can use as much exposure.
Versatility - There are so many applications for Promotional Products Marketing that a listing of them would look like the Sydney telephone directory.
Budget Flexible - From a few cents to hundreds of dollars Promotion Products has items to fulfill your particular communication objectives.
Obligation - Successful business is based on good relationships Promotional Products to customers strengthens these relationships and creates an obligation towards doing business with you and your organisation.
Functional - The Promotional Products we offer are useful ensuring that your client will use the gift and be exposed to your message on a daily basis.
Promotion Products is a Brisbane based company that supplies promotional products such as promotional drink bottles and custom notepads and much, much more, call us on 1300 303 717 at anytime.
Sphere: Related ContentThe History of Weddings
Some form of marriage has been discovered to exist in all human societies, past and present. Its significance can be seen in the elaborate and intricate laws and rituals surrounding it. Although these laws and rituals are as varied and plentiful as human social and cultural organizations, some universals do apply.
The main legal function of marriage is to ensure the rights of the partners with respect to each other and to ensure the rights and define the relationships of children within a community. Marriage has empirically conferred a legitimate status on the offspring, which empowered him or her to the various privileges set down by the culture of that community, including the right of inheritance. In most societies marriage also founded the permissible social relations allowed to the offspring, including the sufficient selection of future spouses.
Until the late 20th century, marriage was almost never a matter of free choice. In Western societies love between partners came to be associated with marriage, but even in Western society (as the novels of writers such as Henry James and Edith Wharton attest) romantic love was not the capital basis for matrimony in most eras, and one’s marriage partner was carefully considered.
Endogamy, the custom of marrying someone from within one’s own tribe or group, is the oldest social regulation of marriage. When the forms of communication with outside groups are limited, endogamous marriage is a natural conclusion. Cultural pressures to marry within one’s social, economic, and ethnic group are still very strongly regulated in some societies.
Exogamy, the customof marrying outside the group, is prevalent in societies in which kinship partnerships are the most complex, thus barring from marriage large groups who may trace their lineage to a common ancestor.
In societies in which the large, or extended, family remains the basic unit, marriages are usually arranged by the family. The assumption is that love between the partners comes after marriage, and much thought is given to the socioeconomic advantages accruing to the larger family from the match. By contrast, in societies in which the small, or nuclear, family predominates, young adults usually choose their own mates. It is assumed that love precedes (and determines) marriage, and less thought is normally given to the socioeconomic aspects of the match.
In societies with arranged marriages, the overwhelming custom is that someone acts as an intermediary, or matchmaker. This person’s dominantresponsibility is to arrange a marriage that will be agreeable to the two families represented. Some form of dowry or bridewealth is usually exchanged in societies that favour arranged marriages.
In societies in which individuals choose their own mates, dating is the usual way for people to meet and become acquainted with prospective partners. Successful dating may result in courtship, which then usually leads to marriage.
Marriage rituals
The rituals and ceremonies for marriage in most cultures are associated primarily with productivity and confirm the significance of marriage for the continuation of a clan, people, or society. They also assert a familial or communal sanction of the mutual choice and a comprehension of the difficulties and sacrifices involved in making what is considered, in most cases, to be a lifelong commitment to and responsibility for the welfare of spouse and children.
Marriage ceremonies include symbolic rites, often sanctified by a religious order, which are considered to confer good fortune on the couple. Because economic considerations play a crucial role in the happiness of child rearing, the offering of gifts, both real and symbolic, to the married couple are a significant part of the marriage ritual. Where the presentation of prevents is extensive, either from the bride’s family to the bridegroom’s or vice versa, this usually indicates that the freedom to choose one’s marital partner has been limited and determined by the families of the betrothed.
Fertility rites with the intention to ensure a fruitful marriage exist in some form in all ceremonies. Some of the oldest rituals still to exist in contemporary ceremonies include the prominent display of fruits or of cereal grains that are sprinkled over the couple or on their nuptial bed, the accompaniment of a small child with the bride, and the smashing of an object or food to ensure a successful consummation of the marriage and an easy childbirth.
The most universal ritual is one that symbolizes a sacred union. This may be proclaimed by the joining of hands, an exchange of rings or chains, or the tying of garments. However, all the elements in marriage rituals vary greatly among different societies, and components such as time, place, and the social importance of the event are fixed by tradition and habit.
These rituals are, to a certain extent, formulated by the religious beliefs and practices found in societies throughout the world. In the Hindu tradition, for example, weddings are highly elaborate affairs, involving many prescribed rituals. Marriages are usually arranged by the parents of the couple, and the time of the ceremony is determined by careful astrological calculations. Among most Buddhists marriage remains essentially a secular affair, even though the Buddha offered guidelines for the responsibilities of lay householders.
In Judaism marriage is believed to have been established by God and is described as making the individual complete. Marriage involves a double ceremony, which includes the formal betrothal and wedding rites (prior to the 12th century the two were separated by as much as one year). The modern ceremony starts with the groom signing the marriage contract in front of a group of witnesses. He is then led to the bride’s room, where he lays a veil on her. This is followed by the ceremony under the huppa (a canopy that signifies the bridal bower), which involves the reading of the marriage contract, the seven marriage benedictions, the groom’s placing a ring on the bride’s finger (in Conservative and Reform traditions the double ring ceremony has been introduced), and, in most communities, the crushing of a glass under foot. After the ceremony the couple is led into a private room for seclusion, which symbolizes the consummation of the marriage.
From its beginnings, Christianity has emphasized the spiritual nature and indissolubility of marriage. Jesus Christ explained of marriage as instituted by God, and the majority Christians consider it a unbreakable union based upon mutual consent. Some Christian churches consider marriage as one of the sacraments, and other Christians confirm the sanctity of marriage but don’t consider it as a sacrament. Since the Middle Ages, Christian weddings have taken place before a priest or minister, and the ceremony involves the exchange of vows, readings from Scripture, a blessing, and, sometimes, the eucharistic rite.
In Islam marriage is not strictly a sacrament but is always considered as a gift from God or a kind of service to God. The basic Islamic tenets concerning marriage are laid out in the Qur’an, which states that the marital bond rests on “mutual love and mercy,” and that spouses are “each other’s garments.” Muslim men are allowed to have up to four wives at one time (though they seldom do), but the wives must all be treated equitably. Marriages are traditionally contracted by the father or guardian of the bride and her intended husband, who must offer his bride the mahr, a payment offered as a gift to guarantee her financial independence.
If you are looking for a Cairns wedding celebrant, a wedding celebrant in Cairns or a Cairns civil celebrant, contact Del at sharingandcaringcairns.com.au
Sphere: Related Content