Another quick handfasting question

DFaught

   I'm thinking of going with cords (3-4 of them) but I'm not sure on the actually tying of them. Would we just hold the end of all of them and the officiant drape them over or are they actually tied around our hands? Or does it really matter and we can do as we please? I keep looking for an outline of this but none of them are ever really specific.

mzkynd

one way is loop the cords around your hands so it forms an infinity symbol.. a celtic tying cord ritual i believe, another way is the clasping hands and there are several ways to do this, some wrap both wrists in the infinity symbol, and are removed before the end of the ceremony, others wrap around one or both of your clasped hands. i am not the best at explaining,  but it is a matter of choice what feels comfortable or has meaning to you two as a couple

aesthyerin

We had a friend do our tying. She draped it over our hands and then kept draping back and forth. Didn't actually do any tying, just over lapping.

DFaught

  Thanks to you both! That's what I think we're going to do - just drape them back and forth. 

handfast4me

The traditional wording is that they cords are not tied (so as not to afix one person to another) but that they are loose, to allow free will.  So, the officiant brings them under the hands, and lays them over the top. 

However, that being said, I've seen lovely ceremonies in which members of the party actually tie knots in the cord. 

Further, in the traditional Pagan ceremony, the High Priestess dictates how long you will stay tied together, whether that's 20 minutes, 20 hours, or whatever.  Yes, that means you do EVERYTHING together for that time. When you're done, she unties, then ties the cord around a set of candles that you should light whenever you feel that you need some energy in the relationship. 

Edited to add:  the strands should be ALREADY braided together, then the one cord used to perform the ceremony.