Scottish Rituals Handfasting - The Act of Spiritual marriage Photography by Chris Elfes from Photography on Hermitage

Handfasting is an ancient Celtic tradition going back 1500-3000 years and more. The Celts were actually many races, but with a common belief system. They were deeply spiritual, believing in the immortality of the soul. To them, the soul never died and when its human body died, the soul passed to the other side to await a new body in this physical reality. Whether or not handfasting for the Celts was merely the act of betrothal in which the couple lived together for a year and a day or something different is in historical dispute. There are ample examples of Viking Norman and British Celtic kings forming handfasting relationships as well as an official marriage to another woman. Their children from the handfasting relationships were the heirs to their crowns. Handfasting was still occuring in England and Wales at the time of the Norman invasion and quite probably in Ireland as well. Ireland had only switched from the Celtic form of Christianity to the Roman form 500-600 years after Christ and handfasting most likely had continued there as well. In fact, handfasting contiued as well in Europe until the Roman Church's Council of Trent in 1565, when the church ruled that marriages could only occur with a priest and the ceremony had to be of a specified form. Of course, that was the end of handfasting except in Scotland. Why Scotland? A mere 10-years earlier, Scotland had joined the Protestant Reformation and rejected papal authority. Hence, and fortunately so, handfasting survived in Scotland. It was the Scots who definitely took handfasting and turned it into the actual act of legal marriage, it remaining so until as recently as 1939. It is understood that the Scottish Free Parliament is currently considering the reintroduction of handfasting as an act of Legal marriage. A Spiritual Event in Australia While your vows are the act of Legal marriage in Australia, Philip finds very many of his couples look upon handfasting as the act of Spiritual marriage. As a result, he performs handfasting rituals in well over 70% of his wedding ceremonies each year. It is a beautiful and deeply spiritual event, both at the binding stage and at the removal of the binding, Philip succeeding in reducing fathers to tears on several occasions. Anicent Scottish Weddings - only with Philip Greentree