Wedding dresses were left in the closets for months. Weddings were canceled, dates changed and reorganized. The pandemic brought limitations not only to our daily lives, but also changed the schedule of several thousand young couples who wanted to unite in marriage.
Until May, the anti-pandemic measures taken by the Government did not allow traditional weddings to take place, with a large number of guests, as is customary in Cyprus. The summer months, however, brought a better epidemiological picture, giving the possibility to relax the measures, together with the weddings.
SigmaLive contacted the Dioceses of the Church of Cyprus and recorded the number of weddings that took place in 2020-2021.
Specifically, from the Diocese of Tamassos licenses were issued for 290 marriages.
From the Diocese of Morphou Licenses were granted for 177 marriages, in contrast to previous years when the number of marriages reached 250 to 270 in total.
From the Diocese of Kiti licenses were issued for 392 marriages in 2020-2021. Number almost half of the weddings that take place every year.
The largest number of weddings took place in the Limassol district.
According to her data Metropolitan of Limassol, licenses were issued this year for 696 weddings.
In its periphery Metropolis of Constantia - Famagusta about 250 weddings took place.
At Paphos Metropolis, a total of 331 weddings have taken place since the beginning of the year.
From the Diocese of Kykkos and Tilliria the permitted marriages that were given were 100 and from Metropolis of Kyrenia 120 marriage licenses were issued.
Finally, 180 were the licenses given by the Diocese of Trimithou and another 14 marriages were made by licenses granted by Diocese of Arsinoe.
Concerning the Archdiocese There is no specific number of marriage permits for this year, as the permits issued also apply to refugee couples getting married in other parishes.
In total, the number reached about 2.536 marriages.
What we were told is that last year, due to pandemic measures, reduced the number of weddings that took place, however, this will not be the case for the next two years after couples moved in and arranged their weddings for the coming years.