Tying the knot

[Alixw]

When talking about marriage, what does it mean / where does it come from when people say they are tying the knot?

[Clanad]

From Magick Whispers:

The old way in Great Britain for couples to pledge their betrothal was for them to join hands, his right to her right, his left to her left, tying the bride and groom's hands or actually the wrists together. In some versions, this is only done for as long as the ceremony lasts, but in others, the cord is not untied until the marriage is physically consummated. Done in front of witnesses, this made them officially "married" for a year and a day, following which they could renew permanently or for another year and a day. This was called "Handfasting" and was used mostly in rural areas where priests and ministers did not go that often.

The Handfasting gesture seems to have been derived from one of the ancient Indo-European images of male-female conjunction, the infinity sign, whose twin circles represented the sun (female) and the moon (male) or in some of the southern Mediterranean traditions it was sun (male) and moon (female).

Handfastings were traditional before weddings became a legal function of the government or taken over by the formal religions in the early 1500's.  Handfastings remained legal in Scotland all the way up to 1939, even after Lord Harwicke�s Act of 1753 declaring that marriages in England were legal only if performed by a clergyman.  After Lord Harwicke�s Act, the Scottish border town, Gretna Green became a mecca for eloping couples from England who fled there to perform their own Handfastings.

[smudge]

Becoming entwined.

[Quizmonster]

The 'bond of marriage' is, in Latin, 'nodus Herculeus' and part of the Roman marriage ceremony involved the bridegroom in loosening the bride's girdle, not tying it. In other words, they untied the knot, a much more obviously sexual thing to do!
Apparently, at a Hindu marriage ceremony the bridegroom hangs a ribbon on the bride's neck and ties it in a knot. The Parsees of India bind the hands of the bridegroom with a cord folded seven times. Even the ancient Carthaginians tied the couple's thumbs with leather and Celts had some similar rite.
The earliest use of the idea of 'knot' to mean 'marriage' in English dates back to the early 13th century. The actual idea of �tying' a knot is much more recent, though the concept is ancient and widespread across the world.  In fact, the mid-19th century English dialect version was a joke: "To tie a knot wi the tongue at yan cannot louse wi yan's teeth." Saying �I do' with the tongue is creating a �knot' one cannot open even using one's teeth!