Handfastings - Pagan Weddings

My Love is like a red, red rose,
that's newly sprung in June.
My love is like a melody
that's sweety played in tune.
- Robert Burns

A handfasting is the name for a pagan wedding. On this page, I will provide some information about Handfastings. If you had a handfasting and made a page about it, please let me know and I will review and if I like it, I will link to it here. Blessed Be.

Handfasting is so called because the priest/ess who "married" the old Celtic couples literally bound their hands together for the duration of the ritual. It is also the origin of the phrase giving one's "hand in marriage"¹

Couples were not bound for life as they are today, but rather for a duration of time chosen by them. A nine-year handfasting is traditional, however, other common duration by Celtic Pagans for this Union are:

Three years, always renewable by mutual agreement

Six years, always renewable by mutual agreement

Nine months trial Handfasting, renewable to three years, followed by a life-time commitment with mutual consent.

A year and a day trial Handfasting followed by a life-time commitment.

Three years trial Handfasting followed by a life-time commitment.²

Unfortunately, modern law has made legal Handfastings almost impossible to obtain unless one commits for life at the onset. Because of this legal quirk, many Pagans have ceased to care about the legality of their union and have opted to he Handfasted only by the tenets of their path, united by a priest/ess of by themselves.²

Most Handfastings include the following:

circle casting

use of an altar

invocation of the goddess and god

vows

out-of-doors ceremony

presence of a priestess and priest

use of fire/weapon etc...

flowers

consecration of rings³

All Handfastings are different as each form of Paganism has their own way of doing it. For ceremonies and vows from Eclectic to Druidic to Heathen to Norse, go to Witches Wed. The link is below. You can customize your handfasting just as any Christian or Buddhist would make their ceremonies to their liking. Feel free to take anything out or add anything that you would like into the ceremony.

Handfasting Links at the Wiccan Way

Ritual 1
Ritual 2
History of Handfasting

Questions

Have questions about Handfastings? Want some ideas? Need some help planning the ceremony? Need to talk to someone who has been through it? Send a mail to Lady-Star at ls_love@yahoo.com