Handfasting Allowed Year-And-Day Trial Marriages

Handfasting is often described as an ancient Celtic custom that allowed couples to try marriage for a year and a day. The practice usually referred to a legally binding betrothal or unofficial marriage and was especially associated with English, Norse, and Scottish communities. Accounts from the late 1600s describe men in the Scottish Hebrides taking women as wives for one year, after which they could marry them and legitimize their children or return them to their parents.

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