L'invention d'une nouvelle séquence ritueixe de mariage

Abstract

This paper acknowledges the importance of rituals in contemporary societies and endeavours to understand why a new ritual episode has developed that opens the matrimonial scenario. The farewell girl's bachelor party dates back to the end of the 80's and is closely linked to the transformation of the women's status relative to family, society and sexuality. Similarly to what takes place in the course of the stag parties, the young women's celebration symbolically puts an end to the possibility of sexual and love affairs. This new ritual is today attached to the development of white weddings, whose meaning has deeply changed since the 1960's. Organized by the « best girlfriend », and celebrated between women, the hen party symbolizes also the passage between friendship ties and the conjugal bond to which they will become second. The ethnography of the ceremony invites us to develop an analysis of the diversities observed within the various cases described, which are, beyond the common characters, most striking.