Shotgun marriage for couples in Spain

By Wendy Williams

FOR commitment-phobes who feel forever is a long time, a small town in Galicia has solved the problem.

For a third year running the town of Cedeira has recreated the annual Celtic wedding festival of Lughnasadh which sees couples get married for just one year.

Embracing the Celtic belief that matrimony is a temporary and equal union that should be renewed over the years, the town invited 25 couples to celebrate their nuptials with the option to go their separate ways when the year is up.

Traditionally the Celts scheduled weddings at the end of August, with the aim of sharing the winters together and the option to renew their vows the following summer.

Now Cedeira is doing the same, even welcoming back one couple who decided to remarry for the third time.

Self-proclaimed druid ‘Dos Ártabros,’ Manuel Aneiros, married couples at midnight to the sound of Galician bagpipes.

The wedding was followed by a feast of roasted wild boar, cheese and honey, and topped off with a queimada ritual (the preparation of a flaming Galician punch) with an accompanying spell and druid in full trance.