Resilience and Ritual: Marriage and Divorce during the Pandemic

Abstract According to demographic reports, while the marriage rate fell significantly during the pandemic worldwide, this was not the case in Hungary: despite the adverse circumstances, the number of marriages in fact increased, although, at the same time, the number of divorces also rose. What was the reason behind this? Is there perhaps a correlation between the two phenomena? Marriage “fever” during the pandemic, and the rise in the number of divorces, were a direct and indirect consequence of the pandemic and of the recently introduced family loans. The popularity of marriage and, at the same time, the rising divorce rate, and the related social criticism and crisis discourse in particular, triggered reflection on the part of those planning to get married. Engaged couples and newlyweds, contemplating their own marriages, began to formulate and circulate a variety of responses and opinions, albeit with common patterns, about their reasons for marrying and what divorce means to them. Through reinterpretation and innovation, they took concrete steps towards realization and ritualization. Among the main leitmotifs in attempts to reinterpret the meaning of marriage were the duration of marriage, the issue of divorce, and the ideals of individualism and conservatism. In the present paper, I describe marriage and divorce — or rather end-of-relationship — rituals during the pandemic based on the findings of the digital anthropological research (online questionnaires, digital ethnography, and in-depth interviews) that I conducted between 2019 and 2022. My main question concerned the extent to which the practices of reinterpretation and ritualization, observed at both community and individual level, can be seen as instances of community resilience.