*** Welcome to piglix ***

Indian Wedding Blessing


A poem known variously as the "Indian Wedding Blessing", "Apache Blessing", "Apache Wedding Prayer", "Benediction of the Apaches, "Cherokee Wedding Blessing", and with various forms, is commonly recited at weddings in the United States. The poem is of modern non-Native origin, and is cited as an example of fakelore (fake folklore).

The poem was originally written in 1947 by the non-Native author Elliott Arnold in his Western novel Blood Brother. The novel features Apache culture, but the poem itself is an invention of the author's, and is not based on any traditions of the Apache, Cherokee or any other Native American culture. The poem was popularized by the 1950 film adaptation of the novel, Broken Arrow, scripted by Albert Maltz, and the depiction of the marriage is criticized as a "Hollywood fantasy" (Hollywood Indian stereotype).

The poem, in its original form in the 1947 novel, begins:

Now for you there is no rain
For one is shelter to the other.
Now for you there is no sun
for one is shelter to the other.
Now for you nothing is hard or bad,
For the hardness and badness is taken by one for the other.

...and ends "Now there is no loneliness. / Now, forever, forever, there is no loneliness". The poem is not associated with any particular religion (aside from being misrepresented as Native American) and does not mention a deity or include a petition, only a wish.

The 1950 film text begins "Now you will feel no rain" and ends "Go now. Ride the white horses to your secret place."

There are now numerous variations of the poem, generally based on the film, rather than the novel. One modern form is:

Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there will be no loneliness, for each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two persons, but there is only one life before you.
May beauty surround you both in the journey ahead and through all the years.
May happiness be your companion and your days together be good and long upon the earth.


...
Wikipedia

...