In Irish and Celtic wedding tradition, the ceremony involving cords tied around the couple’s hands is called handfasting.
During handfasting, the couple’s hands are joined and wrapped with a cord, ribbon, or strip of cloth. The binding represents their promises and the joining of their lives. The expression “tying the knot” is often linked with this kind of symbolic binding, although the exact historical development of that phrase is more complicated than the popular explanation suggests.
Historical handfasting practices varied by place and period. In medieval Scotland, the term could refer to a betrothal or a form of marriage agreement, while modern ceremonies often draw selectively on Celtic imagery and use handfasting as a personalized ritual.
A modern handfasting is not automatically a legally recognized marriage. Legal status depends on the country, jurisdiction, and whether the ceremony satisfies local marriage requirements. The cords may also be tied in different patterns, so the ritual does not have one universally fixed design.