The most
important element of an asatru wedding is the blessing of
the bride with the hammer. Traditionally, the bride is
seated, and after signing her with the hammer (making the
sign of the hammer, an inverted"T"), the hammer
is placed into her lap for a moment. THis is done to
assure fertility in the marriage.
A key part
of the ceremony is to have the groom ceremonially give
the bride a set of keys, which symbolize her receipt of
responsibility for the home and finances of the family.
In modern
asatru, the bride would typically reciprocate with the
gifting of the groom with an heirloom weapon such as a
sword or axe, symbolizing that he is responsible for
protecting the family. Because few modern households
posess an heirloom sword to pass down, most asatruar
brides to be purchase an heirloom-quality sword for this
purpose.
There is
occasionally a portion of the service in which the
groom's kinsmen wrest the bride from the bride's family,
either by staging a mock struggle for her, or by
threatening anyone in the crowd should they be
considering threatening the conclusion of the ceremony
(by a show of force with swords, for example).
Like almost
all weddings, garb for the wedding party is an important
part of the festivities. The bride will often wear a
reconstructed viking women's dress with over-apron and
twin turtle brooches, and the groom a tunic and trews.
The bride often wears an amber necklace, representing
Freyja's tears, and the man wearing a token of his faith
such as a thorrshammar or valknut pendant.
Like all
asatru ceremonies, the drinking horn is key part, with
the couple sharing a draft of mead from the same horn. In
ancient times, it was a sign of marriage or courtship for
the couple to drink from the same vessel, and for the man
and woman to feed each other choice bits from the same
trencher or plate. Thus, they will ususally follow the
modern tradition of feeding each other a bit of bread or
wedding cake to honor that ancient tradition as well.
Mead, is of course the traditional beverage for this
occasion - to honor the ancient honeymoon
tradtion from which this derives.
Music is
often a part of the modern ceremony, with some
traditional pieces such as the Bridal Chorus from
Wagner's Loengrin being ver common. The Wedding March
from Osterdalen as played by Bukkene Bruse is a personal
favorite of mine.
The Godhi
performs a hammer working or similar blessing fo the
space around the area where the wedding is to take place.
This may be done prior to the arrival of the wedding
party and guests.
It is often
a good idea, when the marriage service will be attended
by folks who are unfamiliar with our ways, to have the
Godhi say some words about the ceremony, its ancient
roots, and the traditional symbolism of the ceremony.
This helps to place the ceremony into perspective, and to
tie it to the kinds of weddings they will undoubtedly
have seen before.
The Groom's
party comes into the area in reverse order, with the best
man followed by the groom last. If they are carrying
swords, they may choose to present arms in a formal
fashion.
The bride's
party comes in while a processional music plays. Again
the bride will be last, and ideally she will be escorted
by her father. If the groomsman are armed, I have seen
them make an arch of swords for the bride's party to walk
through.
The father
gives the bride to the groom and takes his seat.
It is
traditional in America at least to give the audience a
chance to object to the union at some point early in the
wedding ceremony. Because marriage in Viking times was in
part sanctioned by the community, this is harks back to
that. This is a good time to have the groomsmen threaten
the crowd <grin>.
A symbolic
gesture showing the union of the couple is often done
here - like tying the hands of the bride and groom to
each other. (Handfasting)
The
ceremonial eating of the cake/bread and drinking of the
mead might take place at this point.
The exchange
of the keys and sword might occur next.
The blessing
of the bride with hammer fits in nicely here...
The formal
announcement of the marriage and the tradition kissing of
the bride is a great way to finish off the wedding
ceremony, with the grand processional of the wedding
party out of the immediate area afterwards.
In most
weddings, the bride and groom then shake hands with the
attendees in a formal receiving line after all this.
Here's a
link to the wedding ceremony of Daithi and Kris Haxton - agood example of a modern Asatru
wedding
The Kindred of
Ravenswood
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