CONSIDERING VALENTINE DAY'S "BRIDAL PRICE"

CONSIDERING VALENTINE’S DAY “BRIDAL PRICE” By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman Tuesday, February 14, 2017 “Dowry” and “curtsey” initially befuddled me in law school, in the 1970s, being foreign concepts and nomenclature, too, relative to my sociological background. Dowry refers to the durable goods, cash, and real or movable property that the bride's family gives to the bridegroom, his parents, or his relatives as a condition of the marriage. Bridal price, best called bridewealth, also known as bride token, is money, property, or other form of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the parents of the woman he has just married or is just about to marry. More common and familiar to me was the simple exchange of “I love you’s” which progressed, ideally, to marriage, children, and grandchildren, if things worked out. But listening to African singer, Miriam Makeba’s, song, “Malaika,” lamenting subverted love, due to the groom’s inability to pay the bridal price, I reflected on my experience. I have never paid a bridal price, as such, in either of my two marriages, nor was dowry ever paid to me or my family, as such. Our children and grandchildren sublimated both, were higher expressions of each! They are precious beyond purchase at any price!