The ULC Handfasting Ritual

Brand: NEW PAGAN DAWN / Commission for the Granting of Priestly Certificates

WHAT IS INCLUDED?

Universal Life Church Accredited Ritual includes Certified Religious Certificate, NEW PAGAN DAWN Association Certificate, Value Added Taxes, Accounting Fees, Officer Fees, Legal Deed Fees and Ceremony. Those who wish to perform this ritual will receive a Handfasting Certificate issued by the ULC and one issued by THE NEW PAGAN DAWN, accompanied by a black protective case.

WHAT IS HANDFASTING?
Hand fasting is a traditional practice which, depending on the usage of the term, can correspond to an unofficial wedding (in which a couple gets married without an officiant, usually with the intention of having a second wedding with an officiant later), an engagement (an engagement in which a couple has formally promised to marry and which can only be broken by divorce), or a temporary wedding (in which a couple makes a temporary, intentional commitment to marry). The expression refers to fulfilling a pledge by shaking or joining hands.
The terminology and practice is particularly associated with the Germanic peoples, including the English and Norse, as well as the Scottish Gaels. As a form of unofficial engagement or wedding, it was common as far back as Tudor England; as a form of temporary marriage, it was practiced in 17th-century Scotland and was revived in Neopaganism.
Sometimes the term is also used synonymously with "wedding" or "marriage" among neopagans to avoid the perceived non-pagan religious connotations associated with those terms. It is also used, apparently ahistorically, to refer to a supposed pre-Christian practice of the symbolic clasping or wrapping of a couple's hands during a wedding ceremony.