rosary workshop - museum
20c WEDDING  ROSARY
 ALSO CALLED 'LASSO', 'LAZZO' OR 'LAZO' ROSARY
This wonderful double rosary is used during the vows of the wedding ceremony.  One loop goes around the bride, the other the groom. They are  drawn together and united in Christ. A Latin American tradition that is experiencing a comeback.

WEDDING ROSARY   -   VARIATIONS SHARED
MATERNAL SYMBOLISM

This rosary is from a private collection and was dated 1950s but the custom is much older. Note some of the comments below from readers as they open up this beautiful tradition.

~ WEDDING ROSARY ~

TWO ROSARIES IN ONE, EMBRACING THE BRIDE AND GROOM

CONFIGURATION
This Wedding rosary is actually two individual and complete rosaries which meet and become one before the crucifix.  Each rosary has 5 decades, each has its own center and pendant beads of 3 Aves and 2 Paters, then meet at the 3rd center to drop down into another series of 3 Aves's and 2 Paters before reaching the crucifix.
 
9mm CREAMY WHITE, WELL DEFINED PLASTIC ROSE BEADS 

~ VARIATIONS  SHARED ~

... in the embrace of Our Lady ...
 I just made a "Lazo" or double wedding rosary for some dear friends of mine to use when they were married.  He
is from Mexico and it is a very old tradition down there.  Each loop was 7 decades long, (the 15th decade was split and 5 were put at the end of each loop of 7 decades.   (It lookes like 1 Pater,  3 Hail Mary's and 1 Glory Be.)  Then these 2 "tails" were each attached either side of the centerpiece and then another "tail" was attached with the Crux at the bottom, so basically what you have is is a 15 decade rosary split in half.  I made it of milky white glass beads with an ab finish, 10mm beads. It was beautiful. Good Luck and God Bless  Lynda Hetrick
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PS: When I attended this wedding of my friends it was almost as if they were in the embrace of Our Lady while they said their vows.  A very beautiful thought.  Lazo I suppose is Spanish for Lasso and I have a feeling it is a very old tradition in Spain and Mexico. Lynda Hetrick

... It is made up of 3, 5 decade rosaries ...
I've been reading with intrest about the Lazzo. Perhaps you would be interested to read about another traditional Mexican Rosary?  It is simply called the Wedding Rosary, or that is the way it was called to me.  It is made up of 3, 5 decade rosaries.  They are put together like a vest, without the "Tails" , which are blessed along with the rings at the wedding.  At the wedding, when the bride and groom are before the priest, the bride slips one arm into one outer rosary, the groom into the other outer rosary. The middle rosary is in the back of the couple, and they are joined tightly together "in the rosary"  At the reception or home, the bride unhooks the 3 rosaries from each other, and attaches the "tails"  Then the couple presents each mother with a rosary, and asks them to use this rosary to pray for their new marriage. The third rosary, the couple keeps for their own devotions. Mary B
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... I hope she follows the tradition ...
I hope that all my children would want me to make them such a rosary.  My daughter will have a handmade rosary for her Quincentera (Mexican celebration of a girl coming to womanhood at the age of 15) and then her Quincentera rosary will be the center of her  wedding rosary.  Her Quincentera mantilla will be part of her wedding or religious vows veil.  I hope she follows tradition!  Mary B

~ SYMBOLISM ~

... But I was also struck by the maternal symbolism ...
The liturgical symbolism of this, I found extremely rich.   But I was also struck by the maternal symbolism--the rosaries are given to the mothers, the rosary itself essentially a devotion to the Blessed Mother--it strikes me that this traditional Mexican ritual says a great deal about that particular culture's consciousness of how the source of all life is Mother--very much a mirror of our understanding of Mary as the Mother of God Incarnate.
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And I can't help thinking that the use of the rosary here is meant to underline that the course of any marriage will entail the couple and the family experiencing, as Mary did, the fifteen mysteries of Christ's life--from the annunciation (anticipation) of birth, the shared charity and love of the Visitation, the birth of a new generation in the Nativity, and so forth.....Makes me curious if any of this rather profound liturgical symbolism ever gets explained to the couple--it would make the ritual so much richer, I would imagine....
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As an aside, I have to say that the Roman Catholic understanding of the Sacrament of Marriage is very profound for me--my spiritual director explained to me that in all the other 6 sacraments, the priest is the persona Christi, the person who administers the sacrament as Christ to the recipient--except for marriage in which the individuals getting married become the persona Christi for each other--coming from a church where only Baptism and Eucharist are acknowledged as sacramental, I find the sacramental richness of the Catholic Church a source of deep wonder and nourishment...    Pax et bonum   Rob Hopcke

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