Also called hand-fasting, troth-plight, handfast
Handfasting was the old English and Scottish word for a betrothal or marriage made by joining right hands and speaking vows. Today it usually means the modern ceremony of binding a couple's hands with cords or ribbons, which began in 1960s Wicca and is now common at many weddings.
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Take care: Keep cords loose enough to slip off easily, and keep candles and cords apart. A handfasting is not a legal marriage in most places unless a licensed officiant also completes the paperwork.
A man and woman took each other by the right hand and declared themselves married or betrothed, often before witnesses and with gifts exchanged. No priest was required for a valid contract, though the church later pressed for public weddings.
Marie Pieris, a French lady-in-waiting to Mary of Guise, was married by handfasting to Lord Seton at Falkland Palace. The royal accounts record a payment to an apothecary for 'Lord Seytounis handfasting', showing it as an ordinary aristocratic marriage.
Pennant reported a fair at Eskdalemuir where couples paired for a year and then chose to stay or part. Walter Scott popularised it in 'The Monastery' (1820). The legal historian A. E. Anton argued in 1958 that there is no corroborating evidence and the trial-marriage idea is largely romantic invention. Martin Martin's earlier notes on the Hebrides are sometimes cited in its favour.
Wiccans took the word handfasting for their weddings, and Hans Holzer described his own in print in 1969. The binding of hands with cords grew from these ceremonies and spread into mainstream weddings in the 2000s.
Uses: cords
The word comes from Old Norse handfesta, to strike a bargain by joining hands, and 'to handfast' appears in late Old English for a marriage contract. In medieval and Tudor England and in Scotland a marriage or betrothal could be made by consent and joined right hands, without a priest. The Scottish Kirk outlawed handfasting in 1575, yet records show such ceremonies in Leith churches decades later, and marriage by consent stayed in Scots law until the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1939.
The romantic 'year and a day' story comes from Thomas Pennant's 18th-century tour of Scotland and from Walter Scott, and the historian A. E. Anton showed in 1958 how thin its evidence is. The modern practice of physically tying the couple's hands is newer still: Wiccan and Celtic Pagan groups used the word from the late 1960s, and by the 2010s wedding planners offered it to everyone. It is a beautiful ceremony, but it is honest to call it modern.
A cross woven from fresh rushes on St Brigid's Eve and hung in the house and byre to guard against fire, hunger and harm for the year ahead.
East Asian belief that destined partners are tied by an invisible red thread, honored in Japan by en-musubi prayers for good bonds at Izumo Taisha and in Chinese communities through the matchmaker god Yue Lao. This entry gives an open home practice inspired by both.
A commitment spell for a couple who both want it: each partner ties one half of a true lover's knot so the two cords lock together, and a short promise is spoken over it. It draws on the old love-knot token, sailors' knot rings and inscribed posy rings.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
