What are el lazo and las arras?

If you have been to a Mexican or Filipino Catholic wedding you have seen a small box of coins change hands and a cord go over two heads. If you have been told the thirteen coins are Christ and the apostles, you have heard a folk explanation. The rite itself says something simpler, and older.

Earnest money

Arras comes from the Latin arrha, the deposit that binds a contract. Coins from a groom "could serve as earnest money or a pledge (arrha) to fulfill his promise to marry," and a blessing of them survives in the eleventh-century Sacramentary of Vich: "Bless, O Lord, this earnest money, which today Thy servant N. hands over to Thy handmaiden N., as Thou didst bless Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel."¹ Medieval England had the same coins; the Sarum rite blessed "the rings and arrhæ in the church porch" before the couple went inside for Mass.² Why thirteen? A Spanish custom, "thirteen being an auspicious number because it was the number of Christ and His apostles," is one account.¹ A Dominican priest in New Orleans who has done more than eighty weddings gives another: "There are 12 months of the year, but they put an extra coin in as a sign of generosity."³ The official rite names no number and no meaning beyond "the good gifts we will share."⁴

What the rite actually says

The Order of Celebrating Matrimony used in the United States since 2016 makes the exchange mutual and gives both partners the same words. The priest blesses "these arras that N. and N. will give to each other." The husband hands them over: "N., receive these arras as a pledge of God's blessing and a sign of the good gifts we will share." Then "the wife takes the arras and hands them over to the husband, saying" the same.⁴ A Houston reverend interviewed in 2016 described the shift inside one lifetime: the groom used to pour the coins into the bride's hands as his promise to provide; now "the groom will pour las arras into the bride's hands, and the bride will then pour them back."⁵

The lazo comes just before the nuptial blessing. "Bless, O Lord, this lazo (or: this veil), a symbol of the indissoluble union that N. and N. have established from this day forward," and the rubric: "The lazo (or the veil) is held by two family members or friends and is placed over the shoulders of the newly married couple."⁴ Its most usual form is a double-looped rosary, one loop over each of them with the cross between; the shape reads as a figure eight, "which is a symbol of infinity."⁶³ Who places it varies: "Normally, the priest is the one who puts it on them. Sometimes they ask family members," and in some parishes the maid of honor and best man do it.³⁵

Rome, 29 June 2015

These customs had been approved for Spanish-language Masses in the United States since 2010.⁶ The American bishops asked the Holy See for five adaptations to the English rite; three were accepted, on a decree dated 29 June 2015: a consent formula based on the old Sarum rite, the arras, and the lazo or veil.⁷ The bishops' newsletter calls them "important for Hispanic and Filipino cultures."⁶ English use began on 8 September 2016.⁶

The Philippines: the same rite, three sponsors deep

Spanish missionaries carried the ceremony to the Philippines from the late sixteenth century.⁸ There the cord is "customarily shaped or looped to form the figure 8," often made as a long double rosary, and the groom presents thirteen gold or silver coins as a pledge for "the welfare and well-being of his wife and future offspring."⁸ Filipino sponsorship goes wide: multiple pairs of godparents, and "three pairs" of secondary sponsors for the candle, the veil and the cord.⁸ Every object in the rite is somebody's job, which is the point.

Why your mother cares

Because the coins are hers. "They are passed on from family to family," Father Serrano says, and the two people who hold the lazo are, by the rite's own words, "family members or friends."³⁴ When your mother asks who the padrinos de lazo will be, she is asking which two people get to stand at the altar and hold the rope. Pick them like it matters. It is a ninth-century job with a 2016 rubric.