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Hello Everyone,

Does anyone know if it's more common to take an oath or make an affirmation during the citizenship ceremony.

I know it's an individual choice and we can choose whichever we prefer but was just wondering if anyone knew which is the more common method preferred.

Thanks
Sofiathefirst

It would be impossible to say which is more common. It depends on how many within the group on the day prefer for religious reasons to swear an oath on the Bible and those for religious (or agnostic) reasons prefer to affirm.

Sofiathefirst wrote:Hello Everyone,

Does anyone know if it's more common to take an oath or make an affirmation during the citizenship ceremony.

I know it's an individual choice and we can choose whichever we prefer but was just wondering if anyone knew which is the more common method preferred.

Thanks
Sofiathefirst

Sounds like a great FOI (whatdotheyknow) request.

Thanks,

Yes, that would be interesting to know.

Any suggestions which would be better in the case a person has no preference. I have my ceremony soon and would just like to go with whichever way the greater majority of people take it, however have no idea which that is..

You won't know until the day....and in fact you won't even know in advance what each attendee has elected to do. The percentage of Christians, attendees of other religions preferring not to swear an oath on the Bible, agnostics, atheists ...predicting that would be odds of a lottery.

Sofiathefirst wrote:Thanks,

Yes, that would be interesting to know.

Any suggestions which would be better in the case a person has no preference. I have my ceremony soon and would just like to go with whichever way the greater majority of people take it, however have no idea which that is..

I don't really think anyone would be able say one was better compared to the other. As Casa has mentioned its really personal preference. As far as how many would swear on the bible vs affirm, on the day I attended my ceremony earlier this year, it was a 50:50 split, with red vs. blue cards given (with the words to recite) and associated seating on two different sides of the middle aisle.

But that arrangement may ofcourse differ at different councils.

Sofiathefirst wrote:Thanks,

Yes, that would be interesting to know.

Any suggestions which would be better in the case a person has no preference. I have my ceremony soon and would just like to go with whichever way the greater majority of people take it, however have no idea which that is..

Suggest simply doing what feels right for you on your special day.
You won't know your co-citizens so why not just make it your day. Quirky individuality is, after all, part of being British.

My wife chose to carry her personal copy of the Bible, and took the oath and we had a 'good day'.
On the other hand, others on that day didn't seem to bothered by the ceremony one way or the other, just turned up and got it over with.

In general I'm sure other people may well take a Koran or Torah (etc) and they would be welcome to do so.
Didn't notice anyone wearing a colander on their head but you never know.

cs95tdg wrote:

Sofiathefirst wrote:Thanks,

Yes, that would be interesting to know.

Any suggestions which would be better in the case a person has no preference. I have my ceremony soon and would just like to go with whichever way the greater majority of people take it, however have no idea which that is..

I don't really think anyone would be able say one was better compared to the other. As Casa has mentioned its really personal preference. As far as how many would swear on the bible vs affirm, on the day I attended my ceremony earlier this year, it was a 50:50 split, with red vs. blue cards given (with the words to recite) and associated seating on two different sides of the middle aisle.

On the day of my husband's ceremony, it was actually a much higher percentage of attendees electing to affirm and there was no separation in seating.

Casa wrote:

cs95tdg wrote:

Sofiathefirst wrote:Thanks,

Yes, that would be interesting to know.

Any suggestions which would be better in the case a person has no preference. I have my ceremony soon and would just like to go with whichever way the greater majority of people take it, however have no idea which that is..

I don't really think anyone would be able say one was better compared to the other. As Casa has mentioned its really personal preference. As far as how many would swear on the bible vs affirm, on the day I attended my ceremony earlier this year, it was a 50:50 split, with red vs. blue cards given (with the words to recite) and associated seating on two different sides of the middle aisle.

On the day of my husband's ceremony, it was actually a much higher percentage of attendees electing to affirm and there was no separation in seating.

I remember thinking that my local council must have assigned ceremony dates based on individual preferences mentioned at the time of booking the ceremony date, otherwise it would be too much of a coincidence to have an exact 50:50 split in numbers.

Thank you very everyone for your responses.

As Noajthan has suggested, I think it would be a good idea to follow my heart and just do what feels right on the day

During my ceremony we had about 20 Oath people and 15 Affirmation ones ... pretty close to 50:50 .... if not exactly 50:50 actually

For my ceremony, only 2 out of 20 or so went with Oath. Rest were affirmation.

noajthan wrote: Didn't notice anyone wearing a colander on their head but you never know.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Thank you guys for the information..

wpilr_nov12 wrote:

noajthan wrote: Didn't notice anyone wearing a colander on their head but you never know.

Thanks for the suggestion.

That was not a suggestion, that was a reference to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Also see this Daily Mail article.

When I had gone for my naturalisation ceremony, the Bangladeshi gentleman next to me was trying to understand why anybody would affirm. Surely everybody must believe in God!!! That was in spite of many ladies in hijab being in the group that was affirming.

It was a roughly 60(oath)-40(affirmation) split at the ceremony.