What is Handfasting?
Handfasting is an ancient Celtic wedding ritual (almost always Pagan or Wiccan) in which the bride’s and groom’s hands are tied together hence the phrase “tying the knot”. It was a part of the normal marriage ceremony in the time of the Roman Empire. In the 16th century, the English cleric Myles Coverdale wrote in The Christen State of Matrymonye, that in that day, handfasting was still in use in some places, but was then separate from the Christian wedding rite performed in a church several weeks after the consumation of the marriage, which had already begun with the handfasting ritual. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, handfasting was then sometimes treated as a probationary form of marriage. See Historical Handfasting for an introduction to the historical roots of handfasting. One unique tale of a handfasting tradition was that of the Telltown marriages. These took place once per year, on the Sabbat Lughnasadh, and all unmarried people would get together and be married, us
