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{{more footnotes needed|date=February 2015}}
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[[File:Betrothed LCCN2003666755.jpg|thumb|''Betrothed'' by Richard Dudensing (1833–1899)]]
[[File:Betrothed LCCN2003666755.jpg|thumb|''Betrothed'' by Richard Dudensing (1833–1899)]]
'''Handfasting''' is a traditional practice that, depending on the term's usage, may define an [[self-uniting marriage|unofficiated wedding]] (in which a couple marries without an [[marriage officiant|officiant]], usually with the intent of later undergoing a second wedding with an officiant), a [[betrothal]] (an engagement in which a couple has formally promised to wed, and which can be broken only through divorce), or a [[temporary marriage|temporary wedding]] (in which a couple makes an intentionally temporary marriage commitment). The phrase refers to the making fast of a pledge by the [[handshake|shaking or joining of hands]].


The terminology and practice are especially associated with Germanic peoples, including the [[English people|English]] and [[Norsemen|Norse]], as well as the Scots. As a form of betrothal or unofficiated wedding, handfasting was common up through [[Tudor period|Tudor England]]; as a form of temporary marriage, it was practiced in 17th-century Scotland and has been revived in [[Neopaganism]], though misattributed as Celtic rather than Danish and Old English.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thrupp |first1=John |title=The Anglo-Saxon Home - A History Of The Domestic Institutions And Customs Of England - From The Fifth To The Eleventh Century |date=1862 |page=44 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7T8LAAAAYAAJ&q=handfasting&pg=PA1 |access-date=22 March 2024}}</ref>
'''Handfasting''' ({{langx|ga|ceangal na lámh|lit=binding of the hands}}; {{langx|gd|pòsadh-bliadhna|lit=year-marriage}}<ref>{{cite web |title=pòsadh-bliadhna |url=https://www.faclair.com/ViewEntry.aspx?ID=C2F162981703B8762143671A96ECD3EE |website=Am Faclair Beag |access-date=29 December 2025}}</ref> {{IPA|gd|ˈpʰɔːs̪əɣ ˈb̥liən̪ˠə|}}) is a traditional marriage or betrothal practice in which a couple make a pledge by joining, clasping, or symbolically binding their hands.


Sometimes the term is also used synonymously with "[[wedding]]" or "[[marriage]]" among Neopagans to avoid perceived non-Pagan religious connotations associated with those terms. It is also used, apparently ahistorically, to refer to an alleged pre-Christian practice of symbolically fastening or wrapping the hands of a couple together during the wedding ceremony.
The terminology and practice are associated with several medieval and early modern European contexts, including Ireland, Scotland, England, and Germanic-speaking regions. In Ireland and Scotland, modern usage often connects handfasting with Gaelic and Celtic-inspired marriage customs; in England, the term was historically used for betrothal or irregular marriage; and in later Scottish tradition it was associated with temporary or probationary marriage.


== Etymology ==
== Etymology ==
The verb ''to handfast'' in the sense of "to formally promise, to make a contract" is recorded for [[Old English#Late Old English|Late Old English]], especially in the context of a contract of marriage. The derived ''handfasting'' as for a ceremony of engagement or betrothal, is recorded in [[Early Modern English]]. The term was presumably loaned into English from [[Old Norse]] '' handfesta'' "to strike a bargain by joining hands"; there are also comparanda from the [[Ingvaeonic languages]]: [[Old Frisian]] ''hondfestinge'' and [[Middle Low German]] ''hantvestinge''. The term is derived from the verb ''to handfast'', used in [[Middle English|Middle]] to Early Modern English for the making of a contract.<ref name="OED">{{Cite OED|handfast}}, n., v. and adj. and {{Cite OED|handfasting|short=yes}}, v. and n. "Old Norse hand-festa to strike a bargain by joining hands, to pledge, betroth" The earliest cited English use in connection with marital status is from a manuscript of c. 1200, when [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Mary]] is described as "handfast (to) a good man called [[Saint Joseph|Joseph]]". "?c1200 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 2389 "Ȝho wass hanndfesst an god mann Þatt iosæp wass ȝehatenn."</ref> In modern Dutch, "handvest" is the term for "pact" or "charter" (e.g., "Atlantisch handvest", "Handvest der Verenigde Naties"); cf. also the Italian loan word [[manifesto]] in English.
The verb ''to handfast'' in the sense of "to formally promise, to make a contract" is recorded for [[Old English#Late Old English|Late Old English]], especially in the context of a contract of marriage. The derived ''handfasting'' as for a ceremony of engagement or betrothal, is recorded in [[Early Modern English]]. The term was presumably loaned into English from [[Old Norse]] '' handfesta'' "to strike a bargain by joining hands"; there are also comparanda from the [[Ingvaeonic languages]]: [[Old Frisian]] ''hondfestinge'' and [[Middle Low German]] ''hantvestinge''. The term is derived from the verb ''to handfast'', used in [[Middle English|Middle]] to Early Modern English for the making of a contract.<ref name="OED">{{Cite OED|handfast}}, n., v. and adj. and {{Cite OED|handfasting|short=yes}}, v. and n. "Old Norse hand-festa to strike a bargain by joining hands, to pledge, betroth" The earliest cited English use in connection with marital status is from a manuscript of c. 1200, when [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Mary]] is described as "handfast (to) a good man called [[Saint Joseph|Joseph]]". "?c1200 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 2389 "Ȝho wass hanndfesst an god mann Þatt iosæp wass ȝehatenn."</ref> In modern Dutch, "handvest" is the term for "pact" or "charter" (e.g., "Atlantisch handvest", "Handvest der Verenigde Naties"); cf. also the Italian loan word [[manifesto]] in English.
== Ireland ==
In Ireland, handfasting is commonly associated in modern usage with Gaelic and Celtic-inspired wedding traditions, particularly the symbolic joining or binding of a couple's hands. In Irish, the ritual may be described as {{langx|ga|ceangal na lámh|lit=binding of the hands}}, a descriptive phrase based on {{langx|ga|ceangal|lit=binding, tie}} and {{langx|ga|lámh|lit=hand}}.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ceangal |url=https://www.teanglann.ie/en/eid/Ceangal |website=Teanglann |publisher=Foras na Gaeilge |access-date=7 May 2026}}</ref>
The evidence for medieval Irish marriage customs is broader than the modern hand-binding ceremony. Early Irish law treated marriage as a contractual and property relationship, with legal texts distinguishing several forms of {{langx|ga|lánamnas|lit=marriage union}} according to the contributions of the spouses to marital property.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ó Corráin |first=Donnchadh |title=Marriage in Early Ireland |url=https://celt.ucc.ie/marriage_ei.html |website=CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts |publisher=University College Cork |access-date=7 May 2026}}</ref> Donnchadh Ó Corráin notes that early Irish legal sources divide principal marriages into categories including {{langx|ga|lánamnas comthinchuir|lit=marriage of common contribution}}, {{langx|ga|lánamnas for ferthinchur|lit=marriage on man-contribution}}, and {{langx|ga|lánamnas for bantinchur|lit=marriage on woman-contribution}}.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ó Corráin |first=Donnchadh |title=Marriage in Early Ireland |url=https://celt.ucc.ie/marriage_ei.html |website=CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts |publisher=University College Cork |access-date=7 May 2026}}</ref>
In medieval Ireland, marriage practice existed within overlapping Gaelic legal custom and western Christian canon law. Art Cosgrove notes that medieval Ireland was divided between areas under English law and Gaelic Irish areas where older brehon law still operated.<ref>{{cite web |last=Cosgrove |first=Art |title=Marriage in Medieval Ireland |url=https://historyireland.com/marriage-in-medieval-ireland-by-art-cosgrove/ |website=History Ireland |access-date=7 May 2026}}</ref> Under canon law, the matrimonial bond was created by the freely given consent of the two parties, preferably expressed publicly, but a public ceremony was not required for validity.<ref>{{cite web |last=Cosgrove |first=Art |title=Marriage in Medieval Ireland |url=https://historyireland.com/marriage-in-medieval-ireland-by-art-cosgrove/ |website=History Ireland |access-date=7 May 2026}}</ref> Gaelic Irish marriage behaviour, however, was repeatedly criticised by medieval church reformers because older Irish legal custom allowed practices such as divorce, remarriage, and forms of union that did not fully conform to canon-law marriage.<ref>{{cite web |last=Cosgrove |first=Art |title=Marriage in Medieval Ireland |url=https://historyireland.com/marriage-in-medieval-ireland-by-art-cosgrove/ |website=History Ireland |access-date=7 May 2026}}</ref>
Modern claims that handfasting was a fixed, universal, pre-Christian Irish wedding rite are difficult to verify from the surviving legal and ecclesiastical evidence. A more cautious interpretation is that modern Irish handfasting draws on older Gaelic concepts of contractual marriage, public consent, and symbolic binding, while the specific ribbon- or cord-binding ceremony is largely a modern ceremonial form.
== Scotland ==
In Scotland, handfasting was used in several related but distinct senses, including formal betrothal, irregular marriage, and, in some later Highland and Hebridean accounts, a temporary or probationary union. The Scottish Gaelic term {{langx|gd|pòsadh-bliadhna|lit=year-marriage}} refers specifically to the latter idea of a marriage or union lasting for a year.<ref>{{cite web |title=pòsadh-bliadhna |url=https://www.faclair.com/ViewEntry.aspx?ID=C2F162981703B8762143671A96ECD3EE |website=Am Faclair Beag |access-date=29 December 2025}}</ref>
One recorded elite example occurred in February 1539, when [[Marie Pieris]], a French lady-in-waiting to [[Mary of Guise]], was married by handfasting to [[George Seton, 6th Lord Seton|Lord Seton]] at [[Falkland Palace]]. The ceremony appears in the Scottish royal accounts through a payment to an apothecary for his work on the day of "Lord Seytounis handfasting".<ref>{{cite book |last=Paul |first=James Balfour |title=Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland |volume=7 |location=Edinburgh |date=1907 |page=140}}</ref>
Separate from such formal handfasting ceremonies, later sources describe a custom in parts of the Hebrides, especially Skye, in which a couple might live together for a year before entering a permanent marriage. Martin Martin, writing in the late seventeenth century, described an island custom by which a man could take a woman as his wife for a year and then either marry her permanently or return her to her parents.<ref>{{cite book |last=Martin |first=Martin |title=A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland |location=London |publisher=Andrew Bell |date=1703 |page=114}}</ref> This type of account is commonly linked with the later idea of handfasting as a "year and a day" or trial marriage, although the extent, legal status, and antiquity of the custom remain disputed.
The issue also intersected with efforts to regulate Highland and Island society. The [[Statutes of Iona]] of 1609 and subsequent regulations sought to suppress practices regarded by authorities as disorderly or irregular, including marriages contracted for limited terms. The article currently states that those disregarding this regulation were to be punished "as fornicators"; this should remain, but should be placed after the Martin Martin/Skye material because it concerns the regulation of that alleged temporary-marriage practice rather than handfasting generally.
Scottish marriage law also recognised forms of irregular marriage for longer than English law did. Even where the [[Church of Scotland|Kirk]] disapproved of marriages formed by mutual consent and subsequent sexual intercourse, Scottish civil law could still recognise them. Public ceremony and witnesses reduced later disputes. Irregular marriage remained part of Scots law until reforms in the twentieth century, with the article currently noting the [[Marriage (Scotland) Act 1939]] as the point at which handfasting was no longer recognised as a legal form of marriage.<ref>[existing citation]</ref>
Historians have disagreed over whether Scottish handfasting should be treated as evidence of a distinct institution of trial marriage. A. E. Anton argued in 1958 that the popular idea of Scottish handfasting as trial marriage rested heavily on late and romanticised sources, especially Thomas Pennant and Walter Scott.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Anton |first=A. E. |title='Handfasting' in Scotland |journal=The Scottish Historical Review |volume=37 |issue=124 |date=1958 |pages=89–102 |jstor=25526477}}</ref> However, Martin Martin's seventeenth-century account predates Pennant by almost a century. A cautious summary is therefore that temporary unions were reported in some Highland and Island sources, but that their relationship to the broader legal and ceremonial practice of handfasting remains contested.


== Medieval and Tudor England ==
== Medieval and Tudor England ==
 
The [[Fourth Lateran Council]] (1215) forbade clandestine marriage, and required marriages to be publicly announced in churches by priests. In the sixteenth century, the [[Council of Trent]] legislated more specific requirements, such as the presence of a priest and two witnesses, as well as promulgation of the marriage announcement thirty days prior to the ceremony. These laws did not extend to the regions affected by the [[Protestant Reformation]]. In England, clergy performed many clandestine marriages, such as so-called [[Fleet Marriage]], which were held legally valid;{{efn|In 1601 the poet [[John Donne]] married clandestinely in a private room where only he, his bride, his friend Christopher Brooke and Brooke's brother Samuel, a clergyman, were present. No banns were called and the bride's parents did not give consent; nevertheless, the bride's father did not later legally dispute the validity of the marriage.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=David |last=Colclough |title=Donne, John (1572–1631), poet and Church of England clergyman |entry=Donne, John (1572–1631) |encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press  |edition=online |date=May 2011 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/7819 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7819 |access-date=23 April 2012 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>}} and in [[Scotland]], unsolemnised [[common-law marriage]] was still valid.
The [[Fourth Lateran Council]] (1215) forbade clandestine marriage, and required marriages to be publicly announced in churches by priests. In the sixteenth century, the [[Council of Trent]] legislated more specific requirements, such as the presence of a priest and two witnesses, as well as promulgation of the marriage announcement thirty days prior to the ceremony. These laws did not extend to the regions affected by the Protestant [[Reformation]]. In England, clergy performed many clandestine marriages, such as so-called [[Fleet Marriage]], which were held legally valid;{{efn|In 1601 the poet [[John Donne]] married clandestinely in a private room where only he, his bride, his friend Christopher Brooke and Brooke's brother Samuel, a clergyman, were present. No banns were called and the bride's parents did not give consent; nevertheless, the bride's father did not later legally dispute the validity of the marriage.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=David |last=Colclough |title=Donne, John (1572–1631), poet and Church of England clergyman |entry=Donne, John (1572–1631) |encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press  |edition=online |date=May 2011 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/7819 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7819 |access-date=23 April 2012 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>}} and in [[Scotland]], unsolemnised [[common-law marriage]] was still valid.


From about the 12th to the 17th century, "handfasting" in England was simply a term for "engagement to be married", or a ceremony held on the occasion of such a contract, usually about a month prior to a church wedding, at which the marrying couple formally declared that each accepted the other as spouse. Handfasting was legally binding: as soon as the couple made their vows to each other they were validly married. It was not a temporary arrangement. Just as with church weddings of the period, the union which handfasting created could only be dissolved by death. English legal authorities held that even if not followed by intercourse, handfasting was as binding as any vow taken in church before a priest.<ref name="Nicholl">{{cite book |first=Charles |last=Nicholl |title=The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street |location=London |publisher=Allen Lane |date=2007 |isbn=978-0-713-99890-0 |chapter=Chapter 27: A handfasting |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lodgershakespear0000nich/page/251 251-258] |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/lodgershakespear0000nich/page/251 }}</ref>
From about the 12th to the 17th century, "handfasting" in England was simply a term for "engagement to be married", or a ceremony held on the occasion of such a contract, usually about a month prior to a church wedding, at which the marrying couple formally declared that each accepted the other as spouse. Handfasting was legally binding: as soon as the couple made their vows to each other they were validly married. It was not a temporary arrangement. Just as with church weddings of the period, the union which handfasting created could only be dissolved by death. English legal authorities held that even if not followed by intercourse, handfasting was as binding as any vow taken in church before a priest.<ref name="Nicholl">{{cite book |first=Charles |last=Nicholl |title=The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street |location=London |publisher=Allen Lane |date=2007 |isbn=978-0-713-99890-0 |chapter=Chapter 27: A handfasting |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lodgershakespear0000nich/page/251 251-258] |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/lodgershakespear0000nich/page/251 }}</ref>
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After the beginning of the 17th century, gradual changes in English law meant the presence of an officiating priest or magistrate became necessary for a marriage to be legal.<ref>{{cite book |first=Anne |last=Laurence |date=1994 |title=Women in England, 1500–1760: A Social History |location=London |publisher=Phoenix Press }}</ref>{{page needed|date=March 2017}} Finally the [[Marriage Act 1753|1753 Marriage Act]], aimed at suppressing clandestine marriages by introducing more stringent conditions for validity, effectively ended the handfasting custom in England.<ref>{{cite book |first=Anne |last=Laurence |title=Women in England, 1500–1760: A Social History |location=London |publisher=Phoenix Press |date=1994 |quote=From 1754...Pre-contracts (promises to marry someone in the future) and oral spousals ceased to have any force... }}</ref>{{page needed|date=March 2017}}
After the beginning of the 17th century, gradual changes in English law meant the presence of an officiating priest or magistrate became necessary for a marriage to be legal.<ref>{{cite book |first=Anne |last=Laurence |date=1994 |title=Women in England, 1500–1760: A Social History |location=London |publisher=Phoenix Press }}</ref>{{page needed|date=March 2017}} Finally the [[Marriage Act 1753|1753 Marriage Act]], aimed at suppressing clandestine marriages by introducing more stringent conditions for validity, effectively ended the handfasting custom in England.<ref>{{cite book |first=Anne |last=Laurence |title=Women in England, 1500–1760: A Social History |location=London |publisher=Phoenix Press |date=1994 |quote=From 1754...Pre-contracts (promises to marry someone in the future) and oral spousals ceased to have any force... }}</ref>{{page needed|date=March 2017}}


== Early modern Scotland ==
In February 1539 [[Marie Pieris]], a French lady-in-waiting to [[Mary of Guise]], the consort of [[James V of Scotland]], was married by handfasting to [[George Seton, 6th Lord Seton|Lord Seton]] at [[Falkland Palace]]. This ceremony was recorded in the royal accounts for the payment to an [[apothecary]] for his work on the day of "Lord Seytounis handfasting".<ref>[[James Balfour Paul]], ''Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland'', vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 140.</ref>
The [[Scottish Hebrides]], particularly in the [[Isle of Skye]], show some records of 'Handfast" or "left-handed" marriage occurring in the late 1600s, when the Gaelic scholar [[Martin Martin]] noted, "It was an ancient custom in the Isles that a man take a maid as his wife and keep her for the space of a year without marrying her; and if she pleased him all the while, he married her at the end of the year and legitimatised her children; but if he did not love her, he returned her to her parents."<ref name=Martin1693>{{cite book |title=A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland |first=Martin |last=Martin |publisher=London Hamilton, Adams |date=1693 |edition=1st |page=114 }}  (2nd ed., 1716)</ref>
The most disastrous war fought between the MacLeods and MacDonalds of Skye culminated in the [[Battle of Coire Na Creiche]] when Donald Gorm Mor, who handfasted [for a year and a day] with Margaret MacLeod, a sister of [[Roderick Macleod of Macleod|Rory Mor]] of [[Dunvegan Castle|Dunvegan]], ignominiously expelled his mistress from Duntulm. It is probable that it was as a result of this war that [[Andrew Stuart, 1st Baron Castle Stuart|Lord Ochiltree's]] Committee, which formed the [[Statutes of Iona]] in 1609 and the Regulations for the Chiefs in 1616, was induced to insert a clause in the Statutes of Iona by which "marriages contracted for several [archaic definition 'single'] years" were prohibited; and any who might disregard this regulation were to be "punished as fornicators".<ref>{{cite book |title=History of Skye |first=Alexander |last=Nicolson |date=1930 |publisher=MacLean Press |location=60 Aird Bhearnasdail, by Portree, Isle of Skye |page=87 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=History of the Western Highlands and Isles of Scotland |first=D. |last=Gregory |date=1881 |page=331|publisher=Palala Press }}</ref>
By the 18th century, the [[Kirk of Scotland]] no longer recognised marriages formed by mutual consent and subsequent sexual intercourse, even though the Scottish civil authorities did.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Andrews |first=William |title=Bygone Church Life in Scotland |publisher=Hull Press |year=1899 |pages=210–212 |url={{google books|tvYOAAAAQAAJ|plainurl=yes}} |via=Google Books }}</ref> To minimise any resulting legal actions, the ceremony was to be performed in public.<ref>{{Cite book | last=Macfarlane | first=Leslie J. | editor-last=MacDonald | editor-first=Alasdair A. | editor2-last=Lynch | editor2-first=Michael | contribution=William Elphinstone's Library Revisited | title=The Renaissance in Scotland: Studies in Literature, Religion, History, and Culture |publisher=E.J. Brill |year=1994 |location=Leiden | page=75 |url={{google books|Yl71m3YBVGwC|plainurl=yes}} |via=Google Books | isbn=978-90-04-10097-8 }}</ref> This situation persisted until 1939, when Scottish marriage laws were reformed by the [[Marriage (Scotland) Act 1939]] and handfasting was no longer recognised.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rackwitz |first=Martin |title=Travels to Terra Incognita: The Scottish Highlands and Hebrides in Early Modern Travellers' Accounts c. 1600 to 1900 |publisher=Waxmann Verlag GmbH |year=2007 |page=497, note 199 |url={{google books|GZWpQi7vY0QC|plainurl=yes}} |via=Google Books |isbn=978-3-8309-1699-4}}</ref>
The existence of handfasting as a distinct form of "trial marriage" was doubted by A. E. Anton, in ''Handfasting in Scotland'' (1958). In the article, he asserted that the first reference to such a practice is by [[Thomas Pennant]] in his 1790 ''Tour in Scotland'',<ref name=Anton1958>{{cite journal |last=Anton |first=A.E. |title='Handfasting' in Scotland |journal=The Scottish Historical Review |volume=37 |issue=124 |date=October 1958 |pages=89–102 }}</ref> that this report had been taken at face value throughout the 19th century, and was perpetuated in [[Walter Scott]]'s 1820 novel ''[[The Monastery]]''. However, the Pennant claim in 1790 was not the first time this had been discussed or put to print, as the Martin Martin texts predate Pennant by almost 100 years.<ref name=Martin1693/>


== Neopaganism ==
== Neopaganism ==
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{{commons category|Handfasting}}
{{commons category|Handfasting}}
*[http://www.medievalscotland.org/history/handfasting.shtml Historical handfasting]
*[http://www.medievalscotland.org/history/handfasting.shtml Historical handfasting]
*[http://www.religioustolerance.org/mar_hand.htm Handfasting Information – facts and beliefs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206215013/http://www.religioustolerance.org/mar_hand.htm |date=6 December 2010 }}
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20101206215013/http://www.religioustolerance.org/mar_hand.htm Handfasting Information – facts and beliefs]}}
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20130617184139/http://www.tplt.ca/practical_spirit/handfasting.php The History of Handfasting]}}
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20130617184139/http://www.tplt.ca/practical_spirit/handfasting.php The History of Handfasting]}}
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20201218113057/https://www.uofgschooloflaw.com/blog/2020/12/17/cohabitation-in-scotland-lessons-from-history 'Cohabitation in Scotland: Lessons from history']}}
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20201218113057/https://www.uofgschooloflaw.com/blog/2020/12/17/cohabitation-in-scotland-lessons-from-history 'Cohabitation in Scotland: Lessons from history']}}
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{{Wicca}}
{{Wicca}}


[[Category:Hand gestures]]
[[Category:Marriage, unions and partnerships in England]]
[[Category:Marriage, unions and partnerships in England]]
[[Category:Marriage and religion]]
[[Category:Modern pagan beliefs and practices]]
[[Category:Modern pagan beliefs and practices]]
[[Category:Social history of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Social history of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Marriage and religion]]
[[Category:Temporary marriages]]
[[Category:Temporary marriages]]
[[Category:Types of marriage]]
[[Category:Types of marriage]]
[[Category:Wedding traditions]]
[[Category:Wedding traditions]]
[[Category:Hand gestures]]

Latest revision as of 01:11, 12 May 2026

Not to be confused with Haandfæstning.

TemplateStyles' src attribute must not be empty.

File:Betrothed LCCN2003666755.jpg
Betrothed by Richard Dudensing (1833–1899)

Handfasting (Script error: The function "langx" does not exist.; Script error: The function "langx" does not exist.[1] gd) is a traditional marriage or betrothal practice in which a couple make a pledge by joining, clasping, or symbolically binding their hands.

The terminology and practice are associated with several medieval and early modern European contexts, including Ireland, Scotland, England, and Germanic-speaking regions. In Ireland and Scotland, modern usage often connects handfasting with Gaelic and Celtic-inspired marriage customs; in England, the term was historically used for betrothal or irregular marriage; and in later Scottish tradition it was associated with temporary or probationary marriage.

Etymology

The verb to handfast in the sense of "to formally promise, to make a contract" is recorded for Late Old English, especially in the context of a contract of marriage. The derived handfasting as for a ceremony of engagement or betrothal, is recorded in Early Modern English. The term was presumably loaned into English from Old Norse handfesta "to strike a bargain by joining hands"; there are also comparanda from the Ingvaeonic languages: Old Frisian hondfestinge and Middle Low German hantvestinge. The term is derived from the verb to handfast, used in Middle to Early Modern English for the making of a contract.[2] In modern Dutch, "handvest" is the term for "pact" or "charter" (e.g., "Atlantisch handvest", "Handvest der Verenigde Naties"); cf. also the Italian loan word manifesto in English.

Ireland

In Ireland, handfasting is commonly associated in modern usage with Gaelic and Celtic-inspired wedding traditions, particularly the symbolic joining or binding of a couple's hands. In Irish, the ritual may be described as Script error: The function "langx" does not exist., a descriptive phrase based on Script error: The function "langx" does not exist. and Script error: The function "langx" does not exist..[3]

The evidence for medieval Irish marriage customs is broader than the modern hand-binding ceremony. Early Irish law treated marriage as a contractual and property relationship, with legal texts distinguishing several forms of Script error: The function "langx" does not exist. according to the contributions of the spouses to marital property.[4] Donnchadh Ó Corráin notes that early Irish legal sources divide principal marriages into categories including Script error: The function "langx" does not exist., Script error: The function "langx" does not exist., and Script error: The function "langx" does not exist..[5]

In medieval Ireland, marriage practice existed within overlapping Gaelic legal custom and western Christian canon law. Art Cosgrove notes that medieval Ireland was divided between areas under English law and Gaelic Irish areas where older brehon law still operated.[6] Under canon law, the matrimonial bond was created by the freely given consent of the two parties, preferably expressed publicly, but a public ceremony was not required for validity.[7] Gaelic Irish marriage behaviour, however, was repeatedly criticised by medieval church reformers because older Irish legal custom allowed practices such as divorce, remarriage, and forms of union that did not fully conform to canon-law marriage.[8]

Modern claims that handfasting was a fixed, universal, pre-Christian Irish wedding rite are difficult to verify from the surviving legal and ecclesiastical evidence. A more cautious interpretation is that modern Irish handfasting draws on older Gaelic concepts of contractual marriage, public consent, and symbolic binding, while the specific ribbon- or cord-binding ceremony is largely a modern ceremonial form.

Scotland

In Scotland, handfasting was used in several related but distinct senses, including formal betrothal, irregular marriage, and, in some later Highland and Hebridean accounts, a temporary or probationary union. The Scottish Gaelic term Script error: The function "langx" does not exist. refers specifically to the latter idea of a marriage or union lasting for a year.[9]

One recorded elite example occurred in February 1539, when Marie Pieris, a French lady-in-waiting to Mary of Guise, was married by handfasting to Lord Seton at Falkland Palace. The ceremony appears in the Scottish royal accounts through a payment to an apothecary for his work on the day of "Lord Seytounis handfasting".[10]

Separate from such formal handfasting ceremonies, later sources describe a custom in parts of the Hebrides, especially Skye, in which a couple might live together for a year before entering a permanent marriage. Martin Martin, writing in the late seventeenth century, described an island custom by which a man could take a woman as his wife for a year and then either marry her permanently or return her to her parents.[11] This type of account is commonly linked with the later idea of handfasting as a "year and a day" or trial marriage, although the extent, legal status, and antiquity of the custom remain disputed.

The issue also intersected with efforts to regulate Highland and Island society. The Statutes of Iona of 1609 and subsequent regulations sought to suppress practices regarded by authorities as disorderly or irregular, including marriages contracted for limited terms. The article currently states that those disregarding this regulation were to be punished "as fornicators"; this should remain, but should be placed after the Martin Martin/Skye material because it concerns the regulation of that alleged temporary-marriage practice rather than handfasting generally.

Scottish marriage law also recognised forms of irregular marriage for longer than English law did. Even where the Kirk disapproved of marriages formed by mutual consent and subsequent sexual intercourse, Scottish civil law could still recognise them. Public ceremony and witnesses reduced later disputes. Irregular marriage remained part of Scots law until reforms in the twentieth century, with the article currently noting the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1939 as the point at which handfasting was no longer recognised as a legal form of marriage.[12]

Historians have disagreed over whether Scottish handfasting should be treated as evidence of a distinct institution of trial marriage. A. E. Anton argued in 1958 that the popular idea of Scottish handfasting as trial marriage rested heavily on late and romanticised sources, especially Thomas Pennant and Walter Scott.[13] However, Martin Martin's seventeenth-century account predates Pennant by almost a century. A cautious summary is therefore that temporary unions were reported in some Highland and Island sources, but that their relationship to the broader legal and ceremonial practice of handfasting remains contested.

Medieval and Tudor England

The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) forbade clandestine marriage, and required marriages to be publicly announced in churches by priests. In the sixteenth century, the Council of Trent legislated more specific requirements, such as the presence of a priest and two witnesses, as well as promulgation of the marriage announcement thirty days prior to the ceremony. These laws did not extend to the regions affected by the Protestant Reformation. In England, clergy performed many clandestine marriages, such as so-called Fleet Marriage, which were held legally valid;[lower-alpha 1] and in Scotland, unsolemnised common-law marriage was still valid.

From about the 12th to the 17th century, "handfasting" in England was simply a term for "engagement to be married", or a ceremony held on the occasion of such a contract, usually about a month prior to a church wedding, at which the marrying couple formally declared that each accepted the other as spouse. Handfasting was legally binding: as soon as the couple made their vows to each other they were validly married. It was not a temporary arrangement. Just as with church weddings of the period, the union which handfasting created could only be dissolved by death. English legal authorities held that even if not followed by intercourse, handfasting was as binding as any vow taken in church before a priest.[15]

During handfasting, the man and woman, in turn, would take the other by the right hand and declare aloud that they there and then accepted each other as husband and wife. The words might vary but traditionally consisted of a simple formula such as "I (Name) take thee (Name) to my wedded husband/wife, till death us depart, and thereto I plight thee my troth".[15] Because of this, handfasting was also known in England as "troth-plight".[15] Gifts were often exchanged, especially rings:[lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 3] a gold coin broken in half between the couple was also common. Other tokens recorded include gloves, a crimson ribbon tied in a knot, and even a silver toothpick.[15] Handfasting might take place anywhere, indoors or out.[15] It was frequently in the home of the bride, but according to records handfastings also took place in taverns, in an orchard and even on horseback. The presence of a credible witness or witnesses was usual.[15]

For much of the relevant period, church courts dealt with marital matters. Ecclesiastical law recognised two forms of handfasting, sponsalia per verba de praesenti and sponsalia per verba de futuro. In sponsalia de praesenti, the most usual form, the couple declared they there and then accepted each other as man and wife. The sponsalia de futuro form was less binding, as the couple took hands only to declare their intention to marry each other at some future date. The latter was closer to a modern engagement and could, in theory, be ended with the consent of both parties – but only providing intercourse had not occurred. If intercourse did take place, then the sponsalia de futuro "was automatically converted into de iure marriage".[15]

Despite the validity of handfasting, it was expected to be solemnised by a church wedding fairly soon afterwards. Penalties might follow for those who did not comply.[19][page needed] Ideally the couple were also supposed to refrain from intercourse until then.[15] Complaints by preachers suggest that they often did not wait,[15] but at least until the early 1600s the common attitude to this kind of anticipatory behaviour seems to have been lenient.[lower-alpha 4]

Handfasting remained an acceptable way of marrying in England throughout the Middle Ages but declined in the early modern period.[20][page needed] In some circumstances handfasting was open to abuse, with persons who had undergone "troth-plight" occasionally refusing to proceed to a church wedding, creating ambiguity about their former betrothed's marital status.[15] Shakespeare negotiated and witnessed a handfasting in 1604, and was called as a witness in the suit Bellott v Mountjoy about the dowry in 1612. Historians speculate that his own marriage to Anne Hathaway was so conducted when he was a young man in 1582, as the practice still had credence in Warwickshire at the time.[15][21]

After the beginning of the 17th century, gradual changes in English law meant the presence of an officiating priest or magistrate became necessary for a marriage to be legal.[22][page needed] Finally the 1753 Marriage Act, aimed at suppressing clandestine marriages by introducing more stringent conditions for validity, effectively ended the handfasting custom in England.[23][page needed]


Neopaganism

File:Handfasting of Ivannia & Jon 2007.jpeg
Neopagan handfasting ceremony

The term "handfasting" or "hand-fasting" was appropriated into modern Celtic neopaganism and Wicca for wedding ceremonies from at least the late 1960s, apparently first used in print by Hans Holzer.[24]

Handfasting was mentioned in the 1980 Jim Morrison biography No One Here Gets Out Alive and again in the 1991 film The Doors, where a version of the real 1970 handfasting ceremony of Morrison and Patricia Kennealy[25] was depicted (with the actual Kennealy-Morrison portraying the Celtic neopagan priestess).[25]

Handfasting ribbon

The term has entered the English-speaking mainstream, most likely from neopagan wedding ceremonies during the early 2000s, often erroneously being described as "pre-Christian" by wedding planners.[26] Evidence that the term "handfasting" had been re-interpreted as describing this ceremony specifically is found in the later 2000s, e.g. "handfasting—the blessed marriage rite in which the hands of you and your beloved are wrapped in ribbon as you 'tie the knot'."[27]

By the 2010s, "handfasting ceremonies" were on offer by commercial wedding organizers and had mostly lost their neopagan association (apart from occasional claims that attributes the ceremony to the "ancient Celts").[28] The term "handfasting ribbon" appears from about 2005.[29]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ In 1601 the poet John Donne married clandestinely in a private room where only he, his bride, his friend Christopher Brooke and Brooke's brother Samuel, a clergyman, were present. No banns were called and the bride's parents did not give consent; nevertheless, the bride's father did not later legally dispute the validity of the marriage.[14]
  2. ↑ The rings might be plain – one was made on the spot out of a rush lying on the floor – or elaborate. They often had a posy engraved. One surviving example is a "gimmal" ring, a double ring which twists apart to become two rings interlinked. It is in the shape of two clasped hands and has the posy "As handes doe shut/so hart be knit."[16][17]
  3. ↑ Some rings incorporated "memento mori" devices, to remind the wearer the marriage was till death.[18]
  4. ↑ In Shakespeare's 1604 comedy Measure for Measure a young man sleeps with his betrothed wife before his church wedding. Judged technically guilty of fornication, under puritanical laws he is condemned to die. The plot is driven by the need to rescue him, and audience sympathy is clearly expected to be on his side.

References

  1. ↑ "pòsadh-bliadhna". Am Faclair Beag. Retrieved 29 December 2025.
  2. ↑ "handfast". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.), n., v. and adj. and "handfasting". Oxford English Dictionary., v. and n. "Old Norse hand-festa to strike a bargain by joining hands, to pledge, betroth" The earliest cited English use in connection with marital status is from a manuscript of c. 1200, when Mary is described as "handfast (to) a good man called Joseph". "?c1200 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 2389 "Ȝho wass hanndfesst an god mann Þatt iosæp wass ȝehatenn."
  3. ↑ "Ceangal". Teanglann. Foras na Gaeilge. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  4. ↑ Ó Corráin, Donnchadh. "Marriage in Early Ireland". CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. University College Cork. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  5. ↑ Ó Corráin, Donnchadh. "Marriage in Early Ireland". CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. University College Cork. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  6. ↑ Cosgrove, Art. "Marriage in Medieval Ireland". History Ireland. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  7. ↑ Cosgrove, Art. "Marriage in Medieval Ireland". History Ireland. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  8. ↑ Cosgrove, Art. "Marriage in Medieval Ireland". History Ireland. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  9. ↑ "pòsadh-bliadhna". Am Faclair Beag. Retrieved 29 December 2025.
  10. ↑ Paul, James Balfour (1907). Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland. 7. Edinburgh. p. 140.
  11. ↑ Martin, Martin (1703). A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland. London: Andrew Bell. p. 114.
  12. ↑ [existing citation]
  13. ↑ Anton, A. E. (1958). "'Handfasting' in Scotland". The Scottish Historical Review. 37 (124): 89–102. JSTOR 25526477.
  14. ↑ Colclough, David (May 2011). "Donne, John (1572–1631)". Donne, John (1572–1631), poet and Church of England clergyman. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7819. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  15. ↑ 15.00 15.01 15.02 15.03 15.04 15.05 15.06 15.07 15.08 15.09 15.10 Nicholl, Charles (2007). "Chapter 27: A handfasting". The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street. London: Allen Lane. pp. 251-258. ISBN 978-0-713-99890-0.
  16. ↑ Richardson, Catherine (2011). Shakespeare and Material Culture. Oxford Shakespeare Topics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. [[[:Template:Google books]] 2]. ISBN 978-0-19-956228-2.
  17. ↑ Cooper, Tarnya (2006). Searching for Shakespeare. Yale University Press. p. [[[:Template:Google books]] 87]. ISBN 978-0-300-11611-3.
  18. ↑ Scarisbrick, Diana (1995). Tudor and Jacobean Jewellery. Tate Publishing. [Thomas Gresham's] wedding-ring has a twin 'gimmal' hoop inscribed in Latin 'Let not man put asunder those whom God has joined together', and beneath the ruby and diamond bezel there are cavities enclosing an infant and a skeleton alluding to the vanity of riches.
  19. ↑ Laurence, Anne (1994). Women in England, 1500–1760: A Social History. London: Phoenix Press. A public church marriage was necessary to ensure the inheritance of property.
  20. ↑ Laurence, Anne (1994). Women in England, 1500–1760: A Social History. London: Phoenix Press. Between the mid-sixteenth century and the mid-seventeenth century the number of spousal actions in the church courts declined markedly, partly because of the increasing belief that the only proper form of marriage was one solemnized in church.
  21. ↑ Greer, Germaine (2009). Shakespeare's Wife. Harper Perennial. pp. 108-110. ISBN 978-0747590194.
  22. ↑ Laurence, Anne (1994). Women in England, 1500–1760: A Social History. London: Phoenix Press.
  23. ↑ Laurence, Anne (1994). Women in England, 1500–1760: A Social History. London: Phoenix Press. From 1754...Pre-contracts (promises to marry someone in the future) and oral spousals ceased to have any force...
  24. ↑ "My wife and I were married by the handfasting ceremony, and it was most controversial." – Hans Holzer, The Truth about Witchcraft (1969), p. 172; "Then I learned that the "special meeting" was, in effect, a wedding ceremony called "hand-fasting" in Wicca." Hans Holzer, Heather: confessions of a witch, Mason & Lipscomb, 1975, p. 101.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Kennealy, Patricia (1992). Strange Days: My Life With And Without Jim Morrison. New York: Dutton/Penguin. p. 63. ISBN 0-525-93419-7.
  26. ↑ Mary Neasham, Handfasting: A Practical Guide. Green Magic, 2000, ISBN 9780954296315
  27. ↑ cover blurb of Kendra Vaughan Hovey, Passages Handfasting: A Pagan Guide to Commitment Rituals, Adams Media, 2007.
  28. ↑ Wendy Haynes, Template:Usurped (wendyhaynes.com), January 2010: "It was used to acknowledge the beginning of a trial period of a year and a day during which time a couple were literally bound together – hand fasted."
  29. ↑ Handfasting ribbon, finished Archived 2014-10-25 at the Wayback Machine (wormspit.com) 4 July 2005; Jacquelyn Frank, Jacob: The Nightwalkers, Zebra Books, 2006, p. 320.
  • Probert, Rebecca (2009). Marriage Law and Practice in the Long Eighteenth Century: A Reassessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521516150.
  • Nicolson, Alexander (1930). History of Skye. 60 Aird Bhearnasdail, by Portree, Isle of Skye: MacLean Press. pp. 73, 86, 120.CS1 maint: location (link)
  • Wilson, Rachel (2015). "Chapter 1". Elite Women in Ascendancy Ireland, 1690-1745: Imitation and Innovation. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer. ISBN 978-1-78327-039-2.
  • Stearns, Peter N. Encyclopedia of European Social History: from 1350 to 2000. Scribner, 2001.
  • Dolan, Frances E. Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 50, no. 2, 1997, pp. 653–655. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3039244.

Template:Types of marriages Template:Wedding Template:Wicca

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