ATEIST WEDDING AS IN AN ISLAND VILLAGE NEAR ZADAR

Abstract

Till the end of the Second World War, Kali, a village on the island of Ugljan, existed within the framework of traditional and Catholic view of the world. The Second World War and post-war social changes brought along the division of its inhabitants into ateists and believers — Catholics. Ateist belief did not bring along a new model of wedding customs, but it accepted the earlier traditional model, i.e. »disgraceful« and »proper« »wedding«. »Disgraceful« »wedding« meant that the girl can to the boy’s house with the knowledge of her parents or without it (if they did not consent to her marrying), and the actual wedding took place later on. »Proper wedding« meant that the boy, accompanied by his parents and rela- tives, went to her (»to ask her hand in marriage«). From »asking« to »wedding« several years could pass, and in the last ten years, one year. Several months before the »wedding« there was a so-called »coffee« in the girl's house and presents were brought there. From the end of sixties till the present time (1987) »coffee« has usually been taking place on the wedding day, and even when the girl left her home »disgracefully«, it took place. Several days before »coffee« bride's friends and cousins walk through the villages in the evening singing old wedding songs. From the registers of the married the number of the married couples in the post-war period (till 1987) was established and compared with the church register of the married .That is how the number of the couples not married in church and relationship between boys and girls concerning their age and profession was established. Ateists are 'different from believers only because of the fact that they do not get married in church. Some of them got married in church. This is primarily caused by the desire for the ceremony which civil wedding that seems like a formal and legal fact more than anything else lacks while leaving emptiness behind.