Weddings of the 16th and 17th centuries in Puerto Rico
Weddings of the 16th and 17th centuries in Puerto Rico are a part of our history many are unaware of. As an amateur historian, I am always reading about the history of Puerto Rico. This article spoke to me because I am incredibly interested in the 16th and17th century historical accounts in Puerto Rico. It helps me understand what life is like when I don’t have photographs or documents. I have been able to research some lines in my family from the 1600s and 1700s. It is nice to see what marriage would have looked like for one of my ancestors during that period. The English translation is provided to best explain it. A special thank you to Beatrice Viera for assisting me with the translation.
Sumptuous Weddings
Nothing is more picturesque than the ceremonies and festivities of how festive weddings occurred in Puerto Rico during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Disregarding the formalities of civil laws, which were the same here as in the Peninsula, we will only touch on the religious ceremonies and wedding celebrations.
We have references to a few historical sources in those first two centuries of our history. Even so, sifting through some of the chronicles of the time, we think we can offer our readers some information.
Requirements
Once the legal requirements are fulfilled, says one author, the bride and groom go to their parish church to attend a “Eucharist* mass,” receiving the sacrament of marriage, the veiling ceremony, and nuptial blessings in the lengthy ceremony of those times. First, the priest reminded the spouses of the primary commandment dictated by the Creator of the Universe and urged them to fulfill the sacred obligations of marriage. Then, with the examples left to posterity by Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, and Rebekah; he implored divine help, asking the Almighty to pour the gifts and graces of heaven on the bride and groom, especially those that he had promised to those patriarchs, the kind peace, abundance, and fertility. Finally, after mass, the bride and groom came out of the church singing an antiphon”.
Nuptials
Before or after the nuptials, the cleric would go to the bride and groom’s houses to bless the arras1, room, and marriage bed, reciting the prayers in the rituals and liturgical codes.
Once the marriage went through the required religious consecration, the public and private rejoicing and festivities began because those wedding celebrations were extraordinary events and being married was very important. A wedding day was like a holiday; joyful, and all businesses, trades, and obligations ceased or were disrupted. And it was customary in all the island towns to have showy and lucid cavalcades2 to honor and accompany the bride and groom. An early seventeenth-century local ordinance stated the following:
“We order that when someone from this neighborhood marries, all neighbors who have horses will ride all Saturday afternoon and Monday morning to honor him, and those who do not have horses will keep the groom company.”
According to this and other ordinances of that century, there was a celebratory custom for weddings on horseback. The groom rode with the men, the bride with the women, and one and another parade went to the church, walked around the public streets, and then went to the square, where they made formations and danced on horseback.
The Custom of Horseback Riding
We can prove that this custom of our grandparents originated in the country by the first Conquerors who came from Extremadura. By examining an old Caceres province law that prohibited widows from such formalities, in these words: “A widow shall not have a wedding on Sunday, shall not go to church on horseback, nor shall any woman ride with her.”
And we know that this custom of horseback riding also existed in other parts of the Peninsula since we find some laws in the Salamanca charters to prevent the disorder and excesses they produced. Thus, only the bride and maid of honor may walk and ride on horseback. “The bride shall ride, says the Salamanca law, and the maid of honor and no other woman shall ride, and if another woman rides, her husband pays five maravedis. (2).”
Celebrations– (Weddings of the 16th and 17th centuries in Puerto Rico)
Apart from the cavalcades, people of both sexes formed separate choirs at night during the wedding. The shared joy included singing through the streets and around the church to the sound of musical instruments. Meanwhile, the parents or relatives of the bride and groom prepared the wedding banquet. It was distinguished and extraordinary compared to our time, considering the tables’ splendor, the abundance of the food, or the crowd of guests. The bride and groom’s house were open to all, and the table was for everyone, and all neighbors attended to show their joy, congratulate the spouses, and express the interest that each took in his happiness.
“Amid the feast – says the admired author – there were singular demonstrations of generosity. The bride’s parents or relatives offered her wedding presents, a trousseau. To the extent his financial means allowed, the husband gave his wife beautiful dresses; and the townspeople gave or promised stockings to the bride’s father or relative and her, wedding presents or offerings. “
Sumptuary Laws (Weddings of the 16th and 17th centuries in Puerto Rico)
Both here and in Spain, such customs soon degenerated into corruption and came to produce disturbances and scandals: rejoicing sometimes turned into sorrow and generosity into profusion. And the Government had to remedy this by bypassing so-called sumptuary laws, limiting the number of gifts, the number of people who could attend the wedding banquet, and even the number of dishes served.
Those wedding cavalcades in Puerto Rico led to having cavalcades in celebration of Three Kings’ Day. These great dances on horseback continued in Caguas until the middle of the last century. (The 1800s)
Notes:
- “Incruentus,” said especially of the sacrifice of the mass: not bloody. The mass is the same sacrifice of the cross, with all its infinite value. In it, all the characteristics of the gift are complete. The priest and the victim are the same Christ, who immolates himself to give glory to God. It is not a representation but an actualization of the sacrifice of the cross. The immolation of Our Lord require an update at each mass. The only difference is that it is to occur in a bloodless way, without the shedding of blood. The group is the perfect sacrifice because the victim is perfect.
- Maravedi, 1. An old Moorish gold dinar of Spain and Morocco. 2. a medieval Spanish unit of value equal to ¹/₃₄ real. b: a copper coin represents one maravedi.
Definitions
- What is the meaning of Arras in a wedding?
- The word arras in Spanish means “earnest money” The tradition of exchanging these wedding tokens during a Catholic wedding ceremony comes from the idea of wishing for prosperity. Historically, the thirteen coins represented the groom’s promise to provide for this family and the bride’s trust in the groom’s promise for provision.
2. A procession of riders or carriages