Marriage Braid

When a Native Martian is born, her family weaves a rope known as a marriage braid. The marriage braid is approximately half a meter in length, and is woven into a design based on a combination of his or her parents’ marriage braids. When Martian youth come of age, (significantly younger than baseline humans), they wear their braid to indicate their eligibility as bachelors. Though marriage in Martian society is a very political arrangement between families, attraction and familiarity between potential suitors is often still a factor.
During the Marigyeol ceremony, the bride presents her braid to the groom, who then ties their two braids together at one end. The new braid is them knotted around the bride's belt, so that both ends hang down along her thigh. Some Native Martian tribes instead braid the two ends together into a single rope of twice the thickness at the original length, a preview of their descendants design. The husband doesn't have to wear the braid from this point on, though a few will have a copy of their wife's braid fashioned to wear around the neck.
Marriages outside of the Native Martian tribes is very uncommon and often taboo. As a result there are few provisions and customs for marriages outside of this system, but there have been scattered attempts to adapt abnormal marriages to this tradition. Those born through artificial gestation are either given a solid black braid or a braid in the color of their adoptive culture or tribe. In the case of marriages involving non Native Martians, the foreign bride or groom will often come up with a marriage braid design of their own, sometimes based on their national colors. These outside attempts at adopting the Martian tradition are often treated with contempt, as are the children of such arrangements.

Significance

Cultural

Item type

Clothing / Accessory

Dimensions

50cm long (unmarried), 1m long (married)