I had a wonderful cultural wedding to shoot last weekend. It was my very first Assyrian wedding in 26 years of photographing weddings. It was so lovely to watch and capture on camera. They have some lovely traditions that I was able to witness on the day. I have included some images below. I did some research in Wikipedia to try and explain some of these traditions as best as I can.
M’Pulata d’Chalo…
A tradition symbolic of the bride leaving the home of her parents. Usually the bride is in her home taking pictures with family and the groom’s family visits to take her out of the home and to the church. While in the house, the women sing tradition lilyaneh and dola and zurna is played as they dance. Before the bride leaves the house, a member of the bride’s family usually a cousin, niece/nephew,uncle/aunty etc… stands at the door and receives an amount of money from a member of the grooms family usually a Father, or brother, the amount is decided by who’s holding the door.
Burakha…
The wedding tradition where the bride and groom are blessed by a priest in a church. The burakha traditionally lasted about four hours, but more recently the event goes for about one hour. Pins in the shape of two crosses are usually placed on the groom’s back.
Now the photo of the bride’s foot on top of the groom’s foot was implying that she has the dominating strength in their life together now! I don’t think this was an Assyrian tradition somehow. I think it was something more worldly! I always thought the man was the head of the house. In the case of my own wedding, the minister said I was the head but my wife was the neck that turns my head!
Well I hope that helps give you a bit of background to some of the images. Oh, and they sure know how to dance! I have never seen so much dancing!
It was certainly a beautiful day. The ceremony was held at St. Hurmizd Cathedral, Greenfield Park and the reception was at Le Montage, Lilyfield. Enjoy the photos!
