Handfasting

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Handfasting (Scottish Gaelic: pòsadh-bliadhna, lit. 'year-marriage' [ˈpʰɔːs̪əɣ ˈb̥liən̪ˠə]) is a traditional practice that, depending on the term's usage, may define an unofficiated wedding (in which a couple marries without an 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 wedding (in which a couple makes an intentionally temporary marriage commitment). The term refers to making a pledge fast by shaking or joining hands. The terminology and practice are especially associated with Germanic peoples, including the English and Norse, as well as the Scots. As a form of betrothal or unofficiated wedding, handfasting was common up through Medieval and Tudor England; as a form of temporary marriage, it was practiced in 17th-century Scotland and has been revived in modern Paganism, though often misattributed to Celts...

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