Almost in every country has a tradition typical wedding celebration. But, almost in every country that has no a tradition of divorce ‘party’.
In Japan, divorce seems no less sacred than marriage. Through a ceremony called ‘Goshugi’, divorced couples will go through a unique procession that marked the destruction of their marriage. As seen in this earlier year. A total of 15 young couples, 20s to 30s, hold Goshugi in a garage that was turned as a home of divorce, in the area of Asakusa, Tokyo.
Wrapped in a formal cloth, they came with envelopes inscribed ‘Goshugi’ and contained of money. Each pair came separate by rickshaw-like vehicle. It means that there were 30 rickshaws there. One woman was representing the wives, opened the ‘party’ divorce with a simple greeting sentence, “Honestly, my feeling is difficult to say. But I still want to be friends even after the divorce,” she said as quoted by the Seattle Times.
Witnessed by the leader of the divorce ‘parties’, Hiroki Terai, each partner then held the hammer together to destroy their wedding rings. Frog-shaped hammer was used as a symbol of cultural change in Japan.
Goshugi is beeing a trend of young couples in Japan. Since April 2010, 54 couples have participated. Long line was snaking up to the end of January 2011. And, Terai is more famous as a master of divorce ceremonies. Bu the good news, many divorced couples would fail after attending the ‘party’.
“About 10 percent of couples who joined the ceremony of divorce decided to not split up, because they got supports from their friends who attended,” said Terai.
Data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan, shows that divorce rates in Japan for last year reached 253,353 cases. It means, there was one divorce every two minutes four seconds.