Tying Hands Together Wedding Ceremony

Participate in the ancient celtic practice of handfasting or tying hands together.

Tying hands together wedding ceremony. A handfasting is a pagan ritual where you bind your hands together and make vows to one another. Vows are typically exchanged as the hands are bound together. Handfasting is an ancient irish wedding tradition that has come to be interpreted literally as the symbolic act of tying the knot blessing of the hands.

In the history of some european traditions weddings were celebrated by a simple ceremony in which two partners would join hands and their wrists would be tied with a cord symbolizing the binding together of their individual lives. You could even use heirloom fabric to make it even more meaningful. Wiccan couples form the infinity symbol by crossing their arms and joining their hands creating a figure eight.

Then their hands are tied together with ribbon to symbolize a union. Hand fasting is a symbolic unity ritual in which a couple stand face to face as their hands are tied together hence the phrase tying the knot. The tradition involves a couple s hands being tied together with cords or ribbons as they face each other you can also stand side by side and tie your right hand and your partner s left hand together or vice versa.

Hand fasting rituals are associated with pagan ceremonies but are now often seen in secular spiritual and even some christian ceremonies. The hand ceremony can be considered a modern version of a handfasting with or without binding your hands or the pagan element. Knot tying the couple has chosen to honor their irish heritage with a handfasting ceremony.

In thai ceremonies for example the couple kneels as elder married relatives pour blessed water from a conch shell onto their hands and offer words of blessing. While it is most often included in wiccan or pagan ceremonies it has become more. It is from this practice that we get the expression tying the knot.

The officiant then wraps the ribbon around the couple s hands three times. The scottish term itself roughly translates into to strike a bargain by joining hands and was considered a celtic tradition during a wedding ceremony. Traditionally during the ceremony the couple works together to braid the three cords purple for a groom white for a bride and gold for god.