Handfasting

This is a type of Celtic wedding ceremony.  The couple stands together with wedding guests forming a circle around them.  No clergy was needed, the couple simply pledged themselves and had their hands gently bound together with a cord or strip of cloth or tartan.  The expression “tying the knot” may have come from the their hand-fasting ceremony.  Handfasting was originally a trial marriage contract that lasted for a year and a day; if it didn’t work out, the couple simply went their separate ways.  Nowadays handfasting can be incorporated into a Christian or civil ceremony as part of a connection to our Celtic culture.