Handfasting
Dating as far back as 700 B.C
What was known as an “engaged to be married,” term is now a romantic and spiritual gesture. Handfasting has spread faster than butter on buns. The wedding community can say this is their wow factoring ceremony that keeps guests engaged as well as provides the wedded with a souvenir to remind them of the commitment and soul tying promises they chose to make.
Originally to break this marriage death was the only... should I say option? This ritual could be performed in a tavern, on horseback, and even in the grooms' mother, living room. As this act was performed it was understood that the persons that were being bonded agreed to give married life a try for a year and if it didn’t work out the groom was to return his wife to her father unless the ritual was performed with two witnesses and a priest, well then that’s when the til’ death do us part comes to play. As you can assume the one-year trial raised eyebrows due to the abuse of the custom. Think modern-day serial dater but with a rope and a wife.
Way, way back the actual rods to fasten hands had meaning. Each rod had to be 4 feet long and each color meant something different;
Red: Will, love, strength, fertility, courage, health, vigor, passion.
Orange: Encouragement, adaptability, stimulation, attraction, plenty, kindness.
Yellow: Attraction, charm, confidence, balance, harmony.
Green: Fertility, luck, prosperity, nurturing, beauty, health, love.
Blue: Safe journey, longevity, strength.
Purple: Healing, health, strength, power, progress.
Black: Strength, empowerment, wisdom/vision, success, pure love.
White: Spiritual purity, truth, peace, serenity, and devotion.
Gray: Balance, neutrality, used in erasing, canceling, neutralizing, and returning to the universe without repercussion.
Pink: Love, unity, honor, truth, romance, happiness.
Brown: Healing, skills, and talent, nurturing, home and hearth, the earth.
Silver: Creativity, inspiration and vision, and protection.
Gold: Unity, longevity, prosperity, strength.
Although traditions seem to get lost, this one has been revived. Handfasting is said to be a pagan ritual for those who could not or did not want to use the word marriage as it had ties to the church. Regardless of its relation to religion, this beautiful gesture during a wedding ceremony is said to be spiritually satisfying and is truly an all-around grandeur way to display love between two people.
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