NOT the Onion … check!
NOT April 1st … check!
– Holy macaroni! New Zealand approves Pastafarian marriages:
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has been allowed to officiate weddings for its kiwi followers.
The application filed in November to the registrar-general of births, deaths and marriages has been approved and is now listed in the New Zealand government’s gazette.
The application was found complying with New Zealand’s law, and thus there was no reason to decline it, registrar-general Jeff Montgomery told the website stuff.co.nz.
“In considering the matter I have referred to the Objects of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, reviewed material available online about this organization and considered other organizations already able to nominate marriage celebrants.”
“No judgment is made on the validity of those beliefs or convictions.”
That has been “one of the more unusual” cases he had to consider, Montgomery added.
The leader of the New Zealand’s branch of the church, or Top Ramen, who prefers to stay anonymous, believes this is just the first step. The next one is to find church celebrants that will perform ceremonies.
“We are a bona fide church, and our people do like to get married, some of them several times,” she told in an interview to Morning Report.
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A typical Pastafarian wedding would include a bride and a groom wearing colanders that have already become a traditional headgear, she said. However, pirate costumes are also acceptable since pirates were actually the first people the Flying Spaghetti Monster created.
Pastafarians are “dedicated to increasing the happiness, maximizing the well-being of all sentient beings,” Top Ramen concluded.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster says it existed hundreds of years as a secret organization, but came into the spotlight only in 2005. The original Pastafarians are said to have been pirates, good and decent people, for some reason portrayed as outcasts by Christians. Today’s Pastafarians are known for wearing colanders as hats and keeping high-carb diet (if they want to). As for the afterlife, FSM followers believe that heaven has a Beer Volcano and Stripper Factory. After going public, the Church has been attracting more and more worshippers from around the world.