Weddings: Personalizing a Hand Fasting Ritual
Now that wedding season is underway, I wanted to provide some suggestions for personalizing a wedding ceremony.Hand fasting is an ancient ritual used by many cultures across the world and was the inspiration behind the expression, “tie the knot.” It’s a beautiful and symbolic ritual that also lends itself well to being personalized.Here are some ways that hand fasting can be tailored for your ceremony:
- Materials
- Choose symbolic colors or patterns
- Make multiple ribbons, or other material, symbolic of an idea. For example, each chord represents one thing that makes a strong marriage
- Use material, scarf, tie, etc from someone important to you. This can be a sweet way to honor someone who has passed.
- Who does the hand wrapping
- The officiant
- Parents
- Children
- Close friend, etc
* Bonus: Person doing wrapping can also choose the material for wrapping
- What is said during the wrapping
- Special vows to each other
- Simply gaze into each other’s eyes
- Whose hands are being wrapped
- If involving children in a wedding, wrap their hands on top of the parents’ hands. Bind everyone together as a family.
Find the variation that reflects you and your ceremony the best!