We're about to deep dive into one of my biggest misinformation hatreds of all supposed ancient Celtic facts.

Handfasting: Is it really an ancient Celtic practise, or is it just something people believe?

Well fasten those seatbelts cause we're about to go on a trip.

Where The Word Comes From

The term 'handfasting' was recorded as a verb in Late Old English to mean 'to formally promise, to make a contract'. In Early Modern English, it was considered a term used for an engagement or contractual betrothal.

If you go back even further than that, historians seem to believe it is a loan word into English from the Old Norse word handfesta. This literally translated into 'to strike a bargain by joining hands' which is pretty on par for what the Late Old English describes it as. A few later Germanic languages like Old Frisian and Middle Low German have words with a similar spelling and meaning.

So far, we're seeing a lot of Norse and Germanic origins, and not a whole lot of Celtic.

There are terms in both Irish and Scottish Gaelic for a similar practise.

In Irish, the comparative term would be ceangal na lamh, which translates to 'binding of the hands'. The Scottish Gaelic version is posadh-bliadhna, which actually means 'year marriage'. So, not quite the same meaning, but it seems to have had a similar context for the handfasting itself.

And whilst this can sound like handfasting IS a Celtic tradition, I think it's important to take a clear note of a few details here:

There is no recorded Continental or Brittonic version of handfasting. If it were truly an 'ancient Celtic' tradition, we would have numerous -if slightly spotty- sources that would indicate the practise was performed across the whole of Europe during the Iron Age and into the Roman Empire. Certainly, we would have some form of writing from the Romans.

The Scottish Gaelic version of the word is completely different from the Irish linguistically. Those of you who read my first article post about how Celtic languages developed would know that Scottish Gaelic directly descends from Irish. Were handfasting an ancient Celtic practise, the Scottish would have a phrase for it that would not vary so much from their Irish counterparts.

Now, onto my second gripe.

Records of Celtic Handfasting

A simple Google search for handfasting will show you a dozen wedding websites advertising their handfasting offers. They'll tell you all sorts of things, like how it was practised in the festival of Beltene, and that a Druid oversaw the binding of the hands.

Brides.com goes a step further, and straight up lies by saying "The handfasting ceremony has its roots in ancient Celtic tradition and dates as far back as 7000 B.C."

ABSOLUTE bullshit.

Because as far as we know, the Celts did not emerge as a group until the Bronze Age, around 1200-500 BCE. 7000 BCE was the neolithic period, and it was during this time that the island of Great Britain was split from the mainland Europe by a massive tsunami. The Celts were NOT performing handfasting back then, because they didn't exist as a culture yet.

But it's this kind of misinformation that feeds into modern day fans of 'Celtic' culture and Neo-Pagan practises. By the time it reaches social media, its accepted as a fact.

Almost every wedding website or simple Celtic blog will tell you handfasting is an 'ancient Celtic tradition'. These are the ones to treat with a pinch of salt, because what do they class as ancient?

I did some search into verified records of Celtic handfasting in history. Yes, verified. I'm not counting maybes here.

Continental Celts

I found absolutely nothing in what we classify as Ancient Europe. Certainly not anything directly tracing its etymological roots back to handfasting or the modern concept we recognise today. Once again- if the Continental Celts, such as the Gauls, were performing this ritual in marriage, we would know. The Romans liked to document things. Pliny the Elder did so much work on Druids and Celtic spirituality. He definitely would have noted such a tradition. And we DO have some information on marriage during the time (I'll save that for a whole post on real Celt marriage traditions!).

Brittonic Celts

In England, Cornwall and Wales, it's rather the same. Handfasting in these areas doesn't crop up until the 13th Century. Even then, from here until the 17th Century it seemed to be more of a promise of marriage than the actual marriage. The Catholic and Protestant churches both banned a lot of these older practises in favour of Christian marriage traditions. Again, I know Brittonic culture varies from Goidelic, but not enough that they would have completely different marriage rituals. Handfasting would have existed in some form in Wales and Cornwall if it were truly 'ancient'.

Irish Celts

Now, onto Ireland. Which, admittedly, is hard to explain without doing a full other article on Irish law.

The Irish had what they called the Brehon Laws. These were practised from the 1st Century AD all the way until the early 17th AD, when the British began to suppress Irish culture in favour of their own law system. Its complicated, long, and supports a society dominated by honour systems, social contracts, and grades of status.

And above all, women had great independence, rights, and more freedom in Irish society than in any European society at the time.

Handfasting being a tradition doesn't fit into this. Irish marriage existed into seperate forms according to contribution, gender, and social status. These were:

lánamnas comthinchuir - marriage of common contribution

lánamnas for ferthinchur - marriage on man-contribution

lánamnas for bantinchur - marriage on woman-contribution

I'll go into detail on these in my planned marriage article, but they also seem self-explanatory to me. Marriage was arranged and dictated according to the finances and property the pair brought into it.

Polygyny existed in Irish culture. As did divorce, which was a shock for such a lot of the Catholics. Hence why they worked so hard to suppress Brehon Law.

So whilst we see handfasting as an ancient Irish thing, it's likely borrowed into the culture due to the meaning behind it. Handfasting is an early root for 'shaking hands' as a deal. Irish marriage WAS a business deal. It seems along the way, we've borrowed Gaelic concepts of social contracts and adjusted it to fit the narrative built by modern wedding businesses.

Scottish Celts

So, the Scottish tradition of handfasting is a lot harder to explain. Namely because we DO have records of handfasting marriages in Scotland.

But they are neither ancient, nor do they seem to have a concrete link to Celtic tradition.

See, we discussed in my first post how the Scottish Gaelic culture stems directly from Irish, and likely emerged in the 3rd to 4th Century AD. The Irish had been using their Brehon Laws since the 1st Century AD, and maybe longer if the 1st Century is when they were recorded. Their laws have a lot of similarities to writings about the marriage in the Gauls, and so it sounds like they genuinely stem from early Celtic practises.

Therefore, if Scottish handfasting really derived from Celtic culture, it would look similar to the Irish concept of marriage.

One of our first recorded examples of a real handfasting marriage was between a woman named Marie Pieris and George Seton IV, 6th Lord Seton. Marie was a lady-in-waiting of Mary of Guise, Queen of Scotland and wife to King James V. You may recognise Queen Mary as the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots.

This occurred in 1539. Which is the 16th Century. This is NEITHER ancient nor Celtic! We live in the 21st Century, a mere 5 CENTURIES APART. 500 years ago is old, but it is not ancient.

In the Highlands and the Hebrides, a Scottish writer called Martin Martin (his name makes more sense in Gaidhlig) writes about a temporary marriage ceremony taking place on islands such as Skye. He wrote about how a couple could live together, betrothed, for a year prior to marriage. Should they not be compatible, they could seperate without ever having to be wed. This aligns with the Scottish phrase we discussed at the start of this post. Martin Martin's writings may have influenced the modern belief that handfasting began as a marriage of 'a year and a day' which, by the way, we also have little information to point this out as an actual fact.

Now, you might ask: wow, so it might have existed in some form in the Highlands and Hebrides after all. Doesn't that make it Celtic?

The answer is a tentative maybe, but for me? Still a no.

Lets focus on the root of handfasting again. It derives from Old Norse.

And in the Viking Age, history saw Norse-Gaels appear. I believe we discussed it in my 'Celtic Family Tree' post.

The Vikings settled in areas of Scotland when they arrived from Scandinavia. Notably, the Shetland Isles, Orkney, the Highlands, and some of the Hebrides Isles, and had settled there well into the 11th Century AD.

So the fact that the Hebrides and Highlands had this practise by the 17th Century AD is not insane. If the word for 'handfasting' is rooted in Old Norse, I don't think its an insane take to say these practises were heavily -if not outright- influenced by Norse culture.

As it has similar words in Old Frisian and High Germanic, one could even argue that the handfasting we know today as more roots in Anglo-Saxon marriage than it does Celtic! But as with Brehon Law, it was more of a contractual betrothal than anything else.

Therefore, I state this:

Scottish handfasting as we know it is a hybrid mix of Celtic, Germanic and Norse culture. I think it takes most of its modern interpretation from Norse marriage customs, including the word. But some of its older, contractual benefits likely have traces of Brehon Law and the degrees of marriage seen in Ireland.

Moral of the Story: Big Wedding is after your money. They appeal to Neo-Pagans, Celtic fantasists, and Scottish/Irish people by throwing loose terms about and making claims of celebrating an ancient practise as a big middle finger to England and Christianity.

End Disclaimer

This is NOT me shitting on your handfasting ceremonies guys. I actually think the premise of the handfasting is really sweet and romantic and honestly, I would not rule it out as a symbolic thing to do myself should I ever pursue marriage.

I should point out that it is not classified as a legal marriage ceremony in most of the UK. If you do handfast, get down to the Civil Courts and do the government one as well. Otherwise your marriage is null and void.

I simply wrote this article to point out that most handfasting offers by wedding businesses are simply a cash grab, and the 'facts' they spout are just them saying what they need to say to reel you in. If you still like the idea of handfasting, then go for it! But maybe not, you'll do it because you like the concept, and not because it's honouring an ancient Celtic ancestor.

Until next time! We're moving away from handfasting and delving into another of my passion topics.

The title is:

Not Just Boadicea - The Celts That Fought The Romans

I’m looking for language blogs that post the following:

Any of the Celtic languages (bonus if it’s Gaeilge)

Any Minority/endangered/underrepresented languages!

I myself post/reblog mostly Gaeilge but also have Gàidhlig, Cymraeg, Kernewek and currently to a lesser extent Brezhoneg (but plan on posting more about it). I also have posts/resources of a variety of languages from Oceania

So if this applies to you please reblog or leave a reply and i will check out your blog!