Katrina Thomas Ethnic Wedding Photographs

In taking communion during their the nuptial mass, Peter and Daphne kneel before the priest. Peter observes while the priest puts a wafer into Daphne's mouth., Katrina Thomas's notes: Roman Catholics are of many ethnic backgrounds but do not introduce customs of their heritage into the long established liturgy.

The hair-cutting ceremony, a custom performed when it was believed that evil spirits hid in hair, is now entertainment. This is provided by a shaman, who dances around Suon and Deap, wielding a pair of scissors and making jokes which embarrass the apprehensive couple., Katrina Thomas's notes: The Cambodians I photographed are newly arrived refugees, having fled the communist Khmer Rouge after the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975. Many came without their families, who had been killed or had remained to guard their properties. In the U.S. Khmer weddings usually take place on a single day. I photographed four, three on a single day, one lasting two days. All are abbreviated when compared to those in the home country. With little guidance, they try to keep traditions for a proper celebration but without their native substances or their own foods. Rather than falling in love, all the couples were matched by others and most weddings are conducted by their own people without the licenses to do so legally but able to marry them in the eyes of their own community.

The hair-cutting ceremony, originally performed when it was believed that evil spirits hid in hair, is now entertainment. Eight young people stand behind Suon and Deap, two holding open umbrellas, symbols of shelter and protection., Katrina Thomas's notes: The Cambodians I photographed are newly arrived refugees, having fled the communist Khmer Rouge after the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975. Many came without their families, who had been killed or had remained to guard their properties. In the U.S. Khmer weddings usually take place on a single day. I photographed four, three on a single day, one lasting two days. All are abbreviated when compared to those in the home country. With little guidance, they try to keep traditions for a proper celebration but without their native substances or their own foods. Rather than falling in love, all the couples were matched by others and most weddings are conducted by their own people without the licenses to do so legally but able to marry them in the eyes of their own community.

Using a paring knife, tweezers and a cotton thread with which she snaps at Aviva's soaped skin, the makeup artist beautifies the prospective bride. On Aviva's head is a traditional parichona, a special striped cap worn by an engaged girl., Katrina Thomas's notes: Bukharan Jews, named for the Uzbek city of Bukhara in Central Asia, emigrated mainly from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, most of them to Queens, NY after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. They speak a dialect of Tajiki and Persian with some Hebrew. At their large receptions, I fail to photograph adequately a distinctive event -- the joma, a dance for which the bride and groom and some close relatives put on a multi-colored silk-woven velvet robe, a joma, modelled upon the biblical Joseph's coat of many colors. The bridegroom wears it for a few minutes, but the bride rarely, one complaining to no one in particular that it is too hot. Before her wedding, because a maiden does not shave or pluck hairs, a bride's shower is held in anticipation of marriage, during which her hairs are plucked. This event made for more successful photography.

In the couple's home, Wahiba, dressed for the wedding, which announces her marriage to a Brooklyn cousin that occurred months earlier in Jerusalem, joins relatives who dance. A tabla (drum) they brought sets the beat for dancing while women ululate their joy., Katrina Thomas's notes: I photographed Arab Muslim celebrations billed as engagements, henna evenings and weddings in Brooklyn, NY and also in Dearborn, MI, which maintains the largest concentration of Arabs in the U.S. Couples may be matched; some meet at family weddings. Muslims make a distinction between marriage and a wedding. The marriage solemnizes a written or an oral agreement, al-mahr, money awarded to the bride by the bridegroom, and usually takes place privately in the home. It is not photographable because the bride and groom remain in separate rooms. Presumably, the marriage is not consummated until after the wedding, which announces the union of man and wife to the community. It takes place any time from a few hours after the marriage to a few years. A henna evening may be celebrated before either or both. The bridegroom's family pays for all festivities. What is distinctive besides the lack of alcohol, except clandestinely, and the sexes being divided so that women dance on one side of the hall and men dance -- dipping, hopping, stamping their feet -- on the other side, is that the bride and groom do not participate. They sit like royalty on a dais presiding over their jubilant guests.

Processions, led by children bearing gifts, are always possible in sunny California. Having parked their cars before walking the last few blocks to the bride's house, the bridegroom Cap, holding flowers, follows bridesmaids carrying foods and two boys with a roast pig., Katrina Thomas's notes: Under a special act of Congress, refugees from Vietnam were first admitted to the U.S. after the fall of Saigon in April 1975. They included ethnic Chinese, Eurasians and Amerasians born there, most of whom are Christian. Vietnamese have settled largely in Texas, and in California, the state in which I photograph them. Weddings start at the bride's house with a formal introduction of the two families, followed by bestowing jewelry on her by the bridegroom's family, and progress to the bridegroom's house to honor his family. In their home country, their own customs were influenced previously by French culture so that couples here adapt rapidly to American ways. The ethnic nuptial rite has been superseded by the Christian rite or a Buddhist blessing.

During the henna evening, Soha and Naim are enthroned between their two mothers standing beside them. The bridegroom's mother bears a pillow on her head on which is pinned jewelry which will be awarded to the bride. The bride's mother bears a bowl of henna decorated with greens and candles. Arabs consider henna halal, meaning that it is holy., Katrina Thomas's notes: I photographed Arab Muslim celebrations billed as engagements, henna evenings and weddings in Brooklyn, NY and also in Dearborn, MI, which maintains the largest concentration of Arabs in the U.S. Couples may be matched; some meet at family weddings. Muslims make a distinction between marriage and a wedding. The marriage solemnizes a written or an oral agreement, al-mahr, money awarded to the bride by the bridegroom, and usually takes place privately in the home. It is not photographable because the bride and groom remain in separate rooms. Presumably, the marriage is not consummated until after the wedding, which announces the union of man and wife to the community. It takes place any time from a few hours after the marriage to a few years. A henna evening may be celebrated before either or both. The bridegroom's family pays for all festivities. What is distinctive besides the lack of alcohol, except clandestinely, and the sexes being divided so that women dance on one side of the hall and men dance -- dipping, hopping, stamping their feet -- on the other side, is that the bride and groom do not participate. They sit like royalty on a dais presiding over their jubilant guests.

Darla and Kendall, who combined Yoruba elements with a Christian ceremony in a Baptist church, jump a broom at the end of the nuptial rite. They keep this tradition tongue-in-cheek, remembering that when their forebears were slaves, if they wished to marry, they were instructed by the plantation owner to go "jump a broom.", Katrina Thomas's notes: African American celebrations keep assorted traditions, dating from the days of slavery, or improvised from tribal Africa. These include jumping a broom, wearing African cloth or dress, executing various ritual dances, eating special foods, and doing whatever else a couple thinks can be added to a western wedding that is important to their culture.

At Middle East wedding receptions, newlyweds spend much time being carried aloft, like Nazar and Dianna, entwined with ribbons of dollar bills., Katrina Thomas's notes: I photograph two weddings in a large affluent Jordanian Arab community established in Yonkers, NY, the nuptial rites taking place in the Syriac Orthodox Church. The celebrations begin on an evening before the wedding with a shower for the bridegroom in his family home, for which he is prepared by not shaving for seven days. He is soaped and showered by his friends, while women ululate and sing outside the door. When dressed he is carried to the assembled guests, seated in a chair, his face lathered and shaved by men and women who take turns swiping at his chin. On the wedding day, at the bride's house, the bridegroom's father, bringing money in envelopes, formally asks her father for her hand in marriage. After the Antiochean nuptial rite conducted in Arabic and English, a lavish reception begins with the two families welcoming the couple by winding around them streamers of attached dollar bills. Food is plentiful and continuous music is provided by two bands. A Middle Eastern band plays for folk dancing of the Levant, known in Arabic as debke, stomping the feet. An American band plays for rock 'n' roll.

Astrological charts determined the auspicious date for Kalpana and Rajesh to marry. In a designated sacred space, covered with a sheet in a small apartment, the wedding is attended by eleven guests. Rajesh puts red vermilion in the parting of Kalpana's hair, the mark of a wife., Katrina Thomas's notes: A wedding is a major rite in the Hindu life cycle, its format and sequence varying greatly in the regions within India as well as abroad. The earliest weddings I photographed were performed by Ram Patwardhan, the first Hindu priest in New York City, who in 1956 designed a modern Vedic ceremony, preserving its essence while streamlining a three- or four-day event to little more than thirty minutes. There being no Hindu temples here at the time, weddings took place in the home or in restaurants serving Asian Indian food. Later, I photograph weddings in newly built Hindu temples, all of which accommodate differing priests and the various traditions which marry a couple. If the couple has not the same homeland, they agree to choose a region of North or South India.