Courtship is a time of getting to know a person with whom one plans to spend the rest of one’s life. Someone described it as the process of feeling one’s way into the mind of another.
Courtship Rituals
In Victorian times, courtship was an established ritual. The prospective groom would ask the girl’s parents for permission to woo their daughter. The girl was often chaperoned by an older woman who ensured that there was no flaunting of moral codes and that the rules of etiquette were maintained. Courtship could not go on indefinitely but lasted between three to six months.
In many eastern societies, marriages are arranged by parents or relatives. There is no period of courtship, and the boy and the girl are practically strangers when they get married.
The animal world also has its courtship rituals. The male selects a partner purely for the purpose of mating. He dances or touches or displays his beauty or fighting prowess to impress the female. But it is her prerogative whether to accept or reject his overtures.
