Handfastings

It is the springtime of the year and thoughts turn to love. To all people past and present, courtship leading to marriage is one of the great rites of passage in human life.

The time when one joins with another, when two come together to make one, is both personal and otherwordly. Throughout time there have evolved any number of traditions and rituals designed to ensure the health, wealth and fertility of a betrothed couple.

Unlike the sometimes elaborately orchestrated weddings which take place today, couples in the past were often sealed together in a simple, natural ceremony called a HANDFASTING...

Handfasting is a betrothal or wedding ritual in which the couple's clasped hands are tied together by a cord or ribbon — hence the phrase "tying the knot".

More and more, this ancient and richly spiritual tradition has found it's place with couples today who wish to be united in love and life with a Handfasting ceremony.

Believed to have begun with Pagan peoples of pre-Christian Europe, handfasting was intended to last for 'a year and a day'. On Beltane (May 1st), couples in love would be joined in the ritual of handfasting and live together as man and wife. At the end of the year and a day, the couple could then choose to either stay together permanently as man and wife, or go their separate ways with no strings---or handfasting cords--- attached! And any children born of the union not be looked down upon, but cherished by all as children born of love.

Today, however, when a couple chooses to include a handfasting in their wedding ceremony, it's done in the spirit of a permanent union, and is both a truly romantic and spiritual occasion!