ANCIENT OR MODERN CUSTOMS TO INCLUDE IN TODAY’S WEDDING CEREMONY

A contemporary popular addition in today’s wedding ceremony is to include a symbolic ritual between the bride and groom.  This custom can have ancient or modern roots and come from a variety of cultural traditions such as :

Hand Fasting   

An ancient wedding ritual often associated with Celtic or Pagan roots.  The wrists of the bride and groom were tied together during the ceremony until the pledge had been made between them at which time the couple are untied.   However, some traditions the cord was not untied until the marriage was consummated!

Today, the Hand Fasting ritual (also referred to as Handfasting or Hand Tying) typically consists of tying the right hands of the couple to be to be married with ribbon(s), chord or sash while they exchange their vows. 

At the recent Royal Wedding of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey in London, William and Kate’s hands were bound together with a golden sash by the Archbishop of Canterbury as he proclaimed them to be joined as husband and wife.  

The colors selected for the cord, ribbon or sash for the Hand Fasting ceremony each have a significant meaning:  
 

White is for peace, sincerity and devotion

Grey is for balance and neutrality

Gold is for intelligence, energy, prosperity, and longevity

Silver is for values, creativity and protection

Light Blue is for understanding and patience

Dark Blue is a safe journey and longevity

Pink is for romance, honor, partnership and happiness

Purple is for sentimentality, faithfulness and goodness

Green is for health, prosperity, luck, fertility and beauty

Red is for courage, strength, passion and fertility

Yellow is for wisdom and harmony

Brown is for earth, grounding, telepathy and home

Black is for wisdom, vision, success and strength

WEDDING RINGS

As you plan and prepare for your special wedding ceremony you will probably also be selecting the rings you wish to exchange if you both choose to wear rings.    

A ring is a circle which is also the symbol of the sun, the earth and the universe.  It is also a symbol of wholeness, of perfection, of harmony and balance.  

The exchange of rings is symbolic in so much as it is a symbol of the circle of shared love into which you enter together and a reminder of the vows you pledge and exchange.  

It is said that it was the Egyptians who began the symbolic ritual of presenting a ring to the bride as a sign of never ending love.   The space in the center of the ring was considered to be an entrance or gateway leading to that which was known as well us unknown.   

Rings were made of leather, bone or ivory. The greater the value of the ring, of course, reflected the wealth of the giver.

In time, the Roman’s adopted this tradition, however, the significance for the Roman groom to present his bride with a ring was not as a symbol of his love, but to claim his ownership of his woman. Often made of iron to symbolized strength and permanence, the Roman wedding ring was called Anulus Pronubus and it is thought that the Romans were the first to engrave the ring.  The Roman wedding ring was worn on the left hand, on the finger that had a vein that was referred to as the Vena Amoris, the Vein of Love said to be directly connected to the heart.   

Despite this myth, today, this finger is known as the ‘ring finger’ and is the most popular finger for wedding rings in western society.  

However, throughout history, wedding rings have been worn on different fingers on the right hand as well as the left including the thumb too!   And so it is today, wedding rings are worn depending on the culture, religion or society, although, the rule of thumb is that if both partners choose to wear a ring, they wear their respective rings on the same finger.