Celtic Wedding Ceremonial Hand Fasting Cloth (Celtic shops Knot&Roses Collection)

Handfasting is a beautiful unity ceremony, that coined the term "tying the knot."
It is an ancient wedding tradition coming from traditional Celtic weddings, very popular in Ireland and Scotland. For this, the officiant ties one of the bride's hands to one of the groom's; in some celebrations this symbolic joining lasts only for the duration of the ceremony, in others, hands are joined for the entire day. The hands convey the warmth of the heart while the infinity symbol created by the rope symbolizes "forever." The wrapping of hands also symbolizes the bringing together of two lives in a marriage of strength and unity.
Comparable wedding ceremonies exist in other world cultures -in Hispanic and Filipino weddings, the couple may opt to perfom what is known as the "lasso ceremony," a larger version of handfasting where the "lasso" encircles their bodies instead of just their hands. In Thailand the bride and groom each sit with their hands folded and linked together with a chain of flowers. In Japan, during a Buddhist ceremony, two strings of beautiful beads are woven together to symbolize the union of two into one. In Ukraine, hands of the young couple are tied with traditional emroidered towel-Rushnyk, which is a important part of the ceremony and has symbolic meaning.
Many couples are choosing to include the hand fasting ceremony to their modern, traditional of theme weddings as it allows them designing their own ceremony to make it meaningful and unique to themselves.
For followers of Neopaganism hand fasting is a term used for a wedding ceremony. Hand fasting ceremonies are suitable for couples in second relationships, for renewal of vows, LGBT couples and for couples of different birth religions. Since 2011, requests for a handfasting have increased dramatically due to the royal blessing the ritual received when it made an appearance during the marriage of Prince William and Princess Kate. The ceremonial yellow cloth has been a part of the royal wedding traditions for centuries.
The prominent accessory to this ceremony is a cord, ribbon or a cloth which will be used in the symbolic act of tying a marrying couple's hands together.
This hand fasting cloth is a part Celtic Roses collection, which includes bridal hankys, head bands,purses, belts, ring pillows, guest albums etc all embroidered with intertwined Celtic knots and roses.
The pattern for this cloth is composed from combination of wide and narrow knotted Celtic borders shops with roses and one letter Irish Claddagh monogram on each end, for the names of a bridal couple.
Celtic cross in the same design is embroidered on the middle of the cloth, easy to find a center rignt after unfolding the cloth during the ceremony- the cross should be placed over the hands of the young couple and the ends will aline by themselves.
The composition can be customized with other colors for knots and roses.
We make this cloth of Duchesse satin or linen at your choice, for traditional or more rustic authentic look.
The cloth is traditionally offered in white, ivory and light cream colors, but on request can be made in several other colors too.
Length of the cloth is about 184 cm or 6 feet- should be enough to wrap around your hands traditional six times, if you like it shorter- let me know. I am often asked if the cloth can be done narrower- no it can not, due to the heavy embroidery. Honestly, I don't think it ever needed- it is not a cord, it is a cloth, just find in Youtube Royal wedding ceremony- that how handfasting cloth should look like.
We offer many other models of handfasting cloth with several traditional symbols, as Tree of life, many Celtic knots- and each of them can be customized to your unique wedding ceremony.