It’s a fair bet that during the course of a couple’s engagement somebody will remark that they are ‘trying the knot’. Equally, it is unlikely that the person making the remark or these hearing it will have much idea of its origins.
The reference is to what was originally an ancient Babylonian custom, probably 3000 years old. At the marriage ceremony, friends of the couple would take a thread from the groom’s and tie them together, a gesture symbolizing the pair’s eternal union.
The custom spread in carious ways, and the tying or undoing of knots acquired many meanings. At some marriage services in medieval Britain, as the priest intoned, ‘Whom God hath joined together let no man separate,’ a needle-woman tied three knots in a piece of lace to ensure the couple’s fidelity.
At ceremonies in the Scottish Hebrides, a groomsman took three threads each of a different hue tied three knots in each and uttered what he believed were the most cruel disappointments of the nuptials bed. To avoid such calamity, the groom stood at the altar with his shoes untied. Elsewhere in Scotland, as late as the mid-nineteenth century, all knots in the brides clothes - garters, shoelaces, petticoat strings – and on the groom’s were examined. If sorcerers wished to render the union childless, they had only to tie any cord with special knot. The couple, it was believed, would then have no hope of raising a family.
At some Irish weddings a century ago the tying of knots as the priest gave his benediction was thought to bring equally dire consequences. An ill-wisher repeated the benediction and, at the mention of each of the three sacred names of the Holy Trinity, tied a knot in a handkerchief or piece of string. Such an act, lit was believed, would render the marriage childless for fifteen years, unless someone destroyed the curse by burning the handkerchief of knotted string.
The reference is to what was originally an ancient Babylonian custom, probably 3000 years old. At the marriage ceremony, friends of the couple would take a thread from the groom’s and tie them together, a gesture symbolizing the pair’s eternal union.
The custom spread in carious ways, and the tying or undoing of knots acquired many meanings. At some marriage services in medieval Britain, as the priest intoned, ‘Whom God hath joined together let no man separate,’ a needle-woman tied three knots in a piece of lace to ensure the couple’s fidelity.
At ceremonies in the Scottish Hebrides, a groomsman took three threads each of a different hue tied three knots in each and uttered what he believed were the most cruel disappointments of the nuptials bed. To avoid such calamity, the groom stood at the altar with his shoes untied. Elsewhere in Scotland, as late as the mid-nineteenth century, all knots in the brides clothes - garters, shoelaces, petticoat strings – and on the groom’s were examined. If sorcerers wished to render the union childless, they had only to tie any cord with special knot. The couple, it was believed, would then have no hope of raising a family.
At some Irish weddings a century ago the tying of knots as the priest gave his benediction was thought to bring equally dire consequences. An ill-wisher repeated the benediction and, at the mention of each of the three sacred names of the Holy Trinity, tied a knot in a handkerchief or piece of string. Such an act, lit was believed, would render the marriage childless for fifteen years, unless someone destroyed the curse by burning the handkerchief of knotted string.
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