A Pagan Wedding In American Culture
A pagan wedding is typically called handfasting. It was used in Neopaganism and Wicca, two separate ideologies. The proper time to hold a wedding in pagan culture is mid-January to February.
Initially, marriage ceremonies were typically simple before the 20th century. In fact, people normally held a small ceremony for themselves and simply had the community come and observe it, so that they could be may bear witness. More recently however, a law was passed that required people to marry under a certain set of laws. With that, the true ceremonies begins with an officiant directing them through the process.. To begin, the man and wife’s hands are tied together with ribbon. This is typically done by the guests at the wedding. The different colors of ribbons represented different things.
There are many …show more content…
To name a few, there may be a berem (commonly known as a broomstick) and a maypole dance. The maypole dance is a dance in which people dance around a pole and wrap the ribbons stuck to the pole around as they move in circles. The people sing and play music as they do this ritual. This represents, to some pagans the decoration of a sacred tree. Since the pole is placed in the “Womb of the earth” it can signify fertility . The handfasting ritual can be perceived as similar to this dance, the only difference being the ribbons are in different places-- one on the hands and the other on the pole, respectively. The vows are personalized by the people getting married. Unlike the typical “til death do us apart…”, it is replaced by the phrase “for as long as our love shall last.” Their saying this means that they are aware of problems that may arise through time and know that they do not have to stay together if those problems become too much to handle. Though there are many similarities of a pagan wedding to a wedding that we see normally, they are very unique with their ceremony and are very
Initially, marriage ceremonies were typically simple before the 20th century. In fact, people normally held a small ceremony for themselves and simply had the community come and observe it, so that they could be may bear witness. More recently however, a law was passed that required people to marry under a certain set of laws. With that, the true ceremonies begins with an officiant directing them through the process.. To begin, the man and wife’s hands are tied together with ribbon. This is typically done by the guests at the wedding. The different colors of ribbons represented different things.
There are many …show more content…
To name a few, there may be a berem (commonly known as a broomstick) and a maypole dance. The maypole dance is a dance in which people dance around a pole and wrap the ribbons stuck to the pole around as they move in circles. The people sing and play music as they do this ritual. This represents, to some pagans the decoration of a sacred tree. Since the pole is placed in the “Womb of the earth” it can signify fertility . The handfasting ritual can be perceived as similar to this dance, the only difference being the ribbons are in different places-- one on the hands and the other on the pole, respectively. The vows are personalized by the people getting married. Unlike the typical “til death do us apart…”, it is replaced by the phrase “for as long as our love shall last.” Their saying this means that they are aware of problems that may arise through time and know that they do not have to stay together if those problems become too much to handle. Though there are many similarities of a pagan wedding to a wedding that we see normally, they are very unique with their ceremony and are very