Shapes and Forms: Wedding Vases

Pueblo Indians have been using the Wedding Vase in their marriage traditions for hundreds of years. In most cases it gets used twice: once at the time of acceptance of engagement and again at the time of actual marriage.

At the time of the acceptance of engagement, the vase is filled with holy water. Then the male representatives drink from the spout the groom drinks from and the female representatives drink from the spout of the bride. That's a symbolic affirming of the relationships between the members of each sex of each family. This happens again during the actual wedding ceremony.

When the marriage ceremony is complete, the vase is given to the newlyweds as a symbol of good fortune and might never be used again.

These days, potters at several pueblos, among the Hopis and at Mata Ortiz make wedding vases. The decorations applied to some of them can be really elaborate. There are also Navajo wedding vases just crawling with horned toads and others with Navajo yard scenes decorating them. I've even seen a couple from Silas Claw with three spouts.