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:
“He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up
his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from
the God of his salvation.”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm XXIV (l. XXIV, 4–5)
“Their virtues lived in their children. The family changed its persons but not its manners, and they continued a blessing to the world from generation to generation.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–120)