Blessing is also a term used for marriage in the Unification Church, see: Blessing Ceremony of the Unification Church.
In a darker turn of phrase, a Blood (street gang) initiation rite will involve getting blessed, a process by which an inductee is punched as hard as possible in the forehead.
In Hawaii anything new (a new building, a new stretch of road to be opened, a new garden) receives a blessing by a Hawaiian practitioner (or Kahuna) in a public ceremony (involving also the unwinding of e.g. a maile lei).
Famous quotes containing the word blessing:
“Our Germany’s dead. However hard this may be for some of us older people, it’s a blessing for our children. Our children grew up against new backgrounds, new horizons. And they are free. Free to grow up as children. Free to run and to laugh without being forced into uniforms. Without being forced to march up and down streets, singing battle songs.”
—Emeric Pressburger (1902–1988)
“Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
“The dignity and stability of government in all its branches, the morals of the people, and every blessing of society, depend so much upon an upright and skilful administration of justice, that the judicial power ought to be distinct from both the legislative and executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be a check upon both, as both should be checks upon that.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)