Traditional Celtic Weddings
 Weddings
are times of renewal and continuum. Your marriage links a new generation
with that of your ancestors. When a couple marries they begin a new family.
They often look to their heritage for a sense of tradition and identity.
In rural locations couples still spend their wedding
night in the barn! The bride’s girl-friends would dress her for
bed and tuck her in and then the male guests would enter and kiss her
good night Great sport was made of delaying and harassing the groom before
he was allowed to join her. The couple could then expect pranks and peeping
until everyone was too drunk or exhausted to remember. Our grandparent’s
generation planned their weddings with escape in mind from this kind
of tradition. The tin cans tied to the get-away car evolved from this
custom. Kidnapping the bride or groom is occasionally still attempted
at some of the rowdier weddings. The salmon leap was the traditional
way the groom joined his bride in the wedding bed. To do this he should
crouch on the floor and then spring into bed in a single leap symbolically
imitating a salmon swimming up stream to spawn.
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There are old customs
for good luck that are fun to follow. "Something
old, Something new, Something borrowed, Something blue, Silver sixpence
in her shoe" (or "a penny in her shoe") is fairly well
known. For people of Celtic heritage who live in new lands this is an
opportunity to include something sentimental that relates to their heritage.
An heirloom from the old country, if available can be used as something
old or something borrowed. An Irish coin, or for Scots and Welsh an old
British sixpence or penny can be worn in the shoe.
In Scotland,
Northern England and perhaps Ireland, the tradition of Handfasting means
betrothal and in others genuine marriage. Many interpret it as a trial
marriage
or
a step beyond betrothal but not nearly as permanent as marriage. It is
often repeated that this handfasting is for a year and a day.
Appealing
as the "trial marriage" concept of handfasting is
to many, the "revival" of the practice is a case of life imitating
fiction. The literary source for the "year and a day" originally
comes from Sir Walter Scott. The popular Outlander series by Diane Gabeldon
is just one of more recent examples of ideas about handfasting entering
the popular imagination through historical novels. A year and a day was
the period that a couple must be married for a spouse to have claim to
a share of inheritable property in case of the death of the other spouse.
Misunderstanding of this fact combined with confusion about the celebration
of betrothals in medieval times lead to the modern myth of the Celtic
trial marriage.
Never-the-less the mythical "trial marriage" handfasting
is now pretty well established in some circles. Handfasting, according
to
the historical novel tradition would normally lead to regular permanent
and valid marriage but if either parties chose to leave, the relationship
was null. Even if children had been brought forth these children were
considered lawful offspring of both parents. Neither would be prevented
from seeking marriage to another after the handfasting was dissolved.
Handfasting in a manner reminiscent of marriage by declaration is advocated
by modern pagans and historical reenactment enthusiasts, sometimes as
an off-the-books substitute for legal marriage, sometimes as a supplement
to a legal wedding. Handfasting, it is claimed is a holdover from pre-Christian
Celtic marriage laws. It should not be surprising that in this day and
age when sexual partnerships often avoid the commitment of permanent
monogamy, that a fantasy state of non-marriage should appear. If trial
marriages existed in medieval times as it is claimed, they were just
the sort of unregistered, off-the-books affairs that would be impossible
to document historically. Thus the possibility that such arrangements
once may have been is used to justify arrangements that are made to order
for lovers wishing to live together in a partnership recognized by like-minded
friends but without the blessing of church or state.
Handfasting can be
part of the religious or civil wedding ceremony. The hands of the bride
and groom are joined as in the familiar scene as the
person officiating the ceremony asks "Who gives this woman to be
wed?" and then takes her hand from her father or whoever is giving
away the bride and clasps it to the hand of the groom. In olden days
the priest or minister would wrap the clasped hands in the end of his
stole to symbolize the trinity of marriage; man and woman joined by God.
With God’s grace in time another trinity would be manifest; mother,
father and child. The Celts have always been good at seeing things in
threes. This symbolic binding together in marriage evolved into a the
practice of wrapping the clasped hands with a cord or an embroidered
cloth, usually made especially for that purpose. Handfasting in this
manner is a legitimate part of a legally valid marriage, rather than
a substitute for it.
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