Ceremonies For Your Ceremony

Each culture has different traditions associated with their weddings. Handfasting is often common in Celtic and Pagan weddings, Jewish unions can involve a chuppah, and some couples choose to include a ring warming or a sand ceremony into their special day. There are many different traditions that can be included into a wedding ceremony, and sometimes people follow them without really knowing what they mean. It's important to make each facet of your wedding important to you as a couple and so if you chose to follow any traditions during your ceremony it's a good idea to know what they stand for.

Handfasting originated from the phrase to handfast, which translated to "a marriage agreement" in Middle English. In more current times, it is mainly found in Pagan wedding ceremonies. During a handfasting the couple's hands are bound together using some form of rope. This binds them together as a couple and symbolizes the intertwining of the two lives into one joint life. In some more traditional instances, including a wedding that I attended last year, rings are also exchanged.

Not all couples chose to exchange rings, but some that do also include a ring warming into their ceremony. In a ring warming the wedding bands are passed around to guests who are encouraged to infuse them with good and loving energy by blessing, praying, and blowing on them. For most people who chose to exchange rings, the rings are a very important symbol of their commitment to each other and a ring warming is a way to include all your guests and their blessings into your ring's symbolism.

Another tradition that is used at some wedding ceremonies is a sand ceremony. In a sand ceremony each member of the couple has a container filled with sand and they combine their separate bits of sand into a third container. This mixing of the sand grains symbolizes the mixing of all parts of two people's lives into one. A similar ceremony is the unity candle ceremony, in which couples each light a candle and then light a third candle together. Some people associate this type of ceremony with more traditional Christian weddings, even though it isn't necessarily from any Christian tradition. The Jewish faith, on the other hand, does involve some specific weddings traditions.

Jewish weddings usually involve a chuppah. A chuppah is a canopy or tent that the couple stand under during their ceremony. In more Orthodox ceremonies, the tent is to be under the sky directly and so most ceremonies are performed outside or in venues that can let the ceiling area above the chuppah be removed for the ceremony. The chuppah symbolizes the presence of God over the wedding. In some weddings the chuppah is decorated by the wedding party, the guests, or even the couple themselves.

For the most part, wedding ceremonies are highly symbolic and many couples tend to include at least one longstanding tradition. Most cultures and religions have their own ceremonies and you can always chose to include the traditions from your own culture or belief system. You can also chose not to use them or to borrow traditions from other types of ceremonies. Just do whatever feels comfortable and right for your own wedding.