Love may be in the air during Marriage Week – but is marriage?

LOVE will, no doubt, be in the air on Valentine’s Day this Sunday.

And this week is – you might be surprised to discover – National Marriage Week 2010, a week to celebrate commitment.

But will marriage proposals be on the cards or will the love be shared among unmarried couples?

Official statistics suggest marriage rates are at the lowest since records began.

The number of marriages registered in England and Wales in 2007 was 231,450, a 3.3 per cent drop on the previous year, and only three quarters of the number recorded in 1991.

Reasons cited for the decline in matrimony include changing social attitudes to sex outside marriage and unmarried parents.

People blame their career and the financial burden of marriage as a reason for not tying the knot.

But says Marriage Week over 90% of young people in the UK aspire to be married at some point in the future – and two out of three marriages end when a partner dies, as opposed to divorce.

Shirley and Arthur Paul have been married for more than 50 years.

The Almondbury couple say by avoiding arguments and sharing everything their marriage has lasted.

The Examiner asked people on the streets of Huddersfield: Is marriage still important today?

Will Smith, 18, Storthes Hall, said: “If you’re religious it has some meaning but I’m not religious.

“I suppose you get your legal rights.

“It’s less important nowadays. Nowadays it’s more like a civil partnership.”

Faye Ratcliffe, 22, Huddersfield University student, from Rochdale, said: “I think it’s important, but a lot of people I know don’t. People don’t take it very seriously anymore.

“I don’t think people see it as the same level of commitment as they once did. They think they can get married and then divorce.”

Sarah Paxman, of Liversedge, said: “Marriage is very important. I don’t think people consider it as important today as they did years ago. There’s no stigma attached to separation and divorce anymore.”

Clifford and Patricia King, 61 and 60, of Denby Dale: “I don’t think people do it as much today. A lot of people live together to find out about each other before they do. It’s up to the individual to make their own choice rather than be forced into it.

“There are still a lot of young people that get married but I suppose it’s not a case of people having to – a lot of people in the old days had to.”