Look up Asian in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Asian refers to an inhabitant of Asia, or someone of Asian descent.

In the Americas, Australia and New Zealand the term refers to those from the Asia pacific region, such as China, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, due to common features found in the region.

In the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries, the term refers more frequently to those from the Indian subcontinent.

Asian or Asiatic may also refer to:

• In context with the Ancient Egyptians, Asiatic is used to mean beyond the borders of Egypt and the continent of Africa to the east, but only of western Asia, or what may now be considered Middle Eastern.
• Asian people - the people from or of the continent of Asia
  • North Asians, includes people west of the Urals and the Ural river, north of East and Central Asia. Includes:
    • Russians
    • Yakuts
    • Tungusic peoples
    • Uralic peoples east of the Urals
    • the Ainu people
  • East Asians, including:
    • Chinese people
    • Filipino people
    • Japanese people
    • Taiwanese people
    • Koreans
    • Mongols
  • Southeast Asians, including:
    • Thai people
    • Vietnamese people
    • Bamar
    • Cambodian people
    • Bruneian people
    • Lao people
    • Malaysian people
    • Singaporean people
    • Indonesian people
  • South Asians, includes:
    • Indian people
    • Pakistani people
    • Bengali people
    • Sinhalese People
    • Nepalese people
    • Bhutanese people
    • Dhivehi people
  • Central Asians including
    • Uzbeks
    • Karakalpaks
    • Tajik people
    • Hazara people
    • Kyrgyz people
    • Uyghur people
    • Kazakhs
    • Pashtun people
    • Turkmen people
  • Western Asians, including:
    • Arab people
    • Turkish people
    • Kurdish people
    • Iranian peoples
    • Israeli people
• Culture of Asia - the culture of the people from the Asia
• Asian cuisine - food based on the style of food of the people from Asia
• Mongoloid race - one of the five races defined by the Office of Management and Budget of the United States government
• Asii (also Asiani), a historic Central Asian ethnic group mentioned in Roman-era writings
• Asian option, a type of option contract in finance
• Asiatic style, a term in ancient stylistic criticism associated with Greek writers of Asia Minor
• Asyan, a village in Iran

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

A bride in an elaborate wedding dress from 1929.

A bride is a woman about to be married or newlywed.

The word may come from the Proto-Germanic verb root *brū-, meaning 'to cook, brew, or make a broth' which was the role of the daughter-in-law in primitive families.^[1] In Western culture, a bride may be attended by one or more bridesmaids.

Her partner, who becomes her spouse after the wedding, is referred to as the bridegroom (or groom).

Attire[link]

Bride and groom in traditional Chinese clothing. The bride and groom wear red or with red decoration, which is associated with courage, loyalty, honor, success, fortune, fertility, happiness, and passion in Chinese culture.

In Europe and North America, the typical attire for a bride is a formal dress and a veil. Usually, in the "white wedding" model, the bride's dress is bought specifically for the wedding, and is not in a style that could be worn for any subsequent events. Previously, until at least the middle of the 19th century, the bride generally wore her best dress, whatever color it was, or if the bride was well-off, she ordered a new dress in her favorite color and expected to wear it again.^[2]

For first marriages in Western countries, a white wedding dress is usually worn, a tradition started by Queen Victoria's wedding. Through the earlier parts of the 20th century, Western etiquette prescribed that a white dress should not be worn for subsequent marriages, since the wearing of white was mistakenly regarded by some as an ancient symbol of virginity, despite the fact that wearing white is a fairly recent development in wedding traditions, and its origin has more to do with conspicuous consumption from an era when a white dress was luxurious, even prodigal, because of difficulties with laundering delicate clothes.^[3][4] Today, Western brides frequently wear white, cream, or ivory dresses for any number of marriages; the color of the dress is not a comment on the bride's sexual history. Outside of Western countries, brides most commonly wear national dress. White wedding dresses are particularly uncommon in Asian traditions, because white is the color of mourning and death in those cultures. In many Asian cultures, red is usual for brides, as this colour indicates vibrance and health and has over time been associated with brides. However in modern times other colours may be worn, or Western styles preferred. Regardless of colour in most Asian cultures bridal clothes are highly decorative, often covered with embroidery, beading or gold. In some traditions brides may wear more than one outfit, this is true for example in Japan, parts of India, and, archaically, in parts of the Arab world.

Particular styles of jewelry are often associated with bridal wear, for example wedding rings in most Western cultures, or chura (red and white bangles) in Punjabi Sikh culture. Hindu brides are presented with a mangalsutra during the wedding ceremony, which has much of the same significance as a wedding ring in other parts of the world. Wedding jewellery has traditionally been used to demonstrate the value of the bride's dowry.

In addition to the gown, brides often wear a veil and carry a bouquet of flowers, a small heirloom such as a lucky coin, a prayer book, or other token. In Western countries, a bride may wear “something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue”; a bridal purse (or money bag) is also common.^[5]

History[link]

The term bride appears in combination with many words, some of which are obsolete. Thus "bridegroom" is a newly married man, and "bride-bell," "bride-banquet" are old equivalents of wedding-bells, wedding-breakfast. "Bridal" (from Bride-ale), originally the wedding-feast itself, has grown into a general descriptive adjective, the bridal ceremony. The bride-cake had its origin in the Roman confarreatio, an upper-class form of marriage, the essential features of whose ceremony were the eating by the couple of a cake made of salt, water and spelt flour, and the holding by the bride of three wheat-ears, a symbol of plenty.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert possibly recreating a wedding pose from their 1840 wedding for the newly developed art form of photography. (1854)

The cake-eating went out of fashion, but the wheat ears survived.^[6] In the Middle Ages they were either worn or carried by the bride. Eventually it became the custom for the young girls to assemble outside the church porch and throw grains of wheat over the bride, and afterwards a scramble for the grains took place. In time the wheat-grains came to be cooked into thin dry biscuits, which were broken over the bride's head, as is the custom in Scotland today, an oatmeal cake being used. In Elizabeth's reign these biscuits began to take the form of small rectangular cakes made of eggs, milk, sugar, currants and spices. Every wedding guest had one at least, and the whole collection were thrown at the bride the instant she crossed the threshold. Those that lighted on her head or shoulders were most prized by the scramblers. At last these cakes became amalgamated into a large one that took on its full glories of almond paste and ornaments during Charles II's time. But even today in rural parishes, e.g. north Notts, wheat is thrown over the bridal couple with the cry "Bread for life and pudding for ever," expressive of a wish that the newly wed may be always affluent. The throwing of rice, a very ancient custom but one later than the wheat, is symbolical of the wish that the bridal may be fruitful.^[7][8]

The bride-cup was the bowl or loving-cup in which the bridegroom pledged the bride, and she him.^[6] The custom of breaking this wine-cup, after the bridal couple had drained its contents, is common to both the Greek Christians and members of the Jewish faith. It is thrown against a wall or trodden under foot. The phrase "bride-cup" was also sometimes used of the bowl of spiced wine prepared at night for the bridal couple. Bride-favours, anciently called bride-lace, were at first pieces of gold, silk or other lace, used to bind up the sprigs of rosemary formerly worn at weddings. These took later the form of bunches of ribbons, which were at last metamorphosed into rosettes.

The bride-wain, the wagon in which the bride was driven to her new home, gave its name to the weddings of any poor deserving couple, who drove a "wain" round the village, collecting small sums of money or articles of furniture towards their housekeeping.^[6] These were called bidding-weddings, or bid-ales, which were in the nature of "benefit" feasts. So general is still the custom of "bidding-weddings" in Wales, that printers usually keep the form of invitation in type. Sometimes as many as six hundred couples will walk in the bridal procession.

The bride's wreath is a Christian substitute for the gilt coronet all Jewish brides wore.^[6] The crowning of the bride is still observed by the Russians, and the Calvinists of Holland and Switzerland. The wearing of orange blossoms is said to have started with the Saracens, who regarded them as emblems of fecundity. It was introduced into Europe by the Crusaders. The bride's veil is the modern form of the flammeum or large yellow veil that completely enveloped the Greek and Roman brides during the ceremony. Such a covering is still in use among the Jews and the Persians.^[9][10]

Gallery[link]

• Wed-dress-001.jpg

  American bride in the late 19th century, wearing a fashionable dark-colored dress

• Scandinavia EthnicCostumes.jpg

  Scandinavian bride and maid (bottom right) in 1876

• 

  Bride at a Shinto wedding

• 

  Qing dynasty-style traditional southeastern Chinese wedding dress (still used in modern day weddings.)

• 

  Indian Muslim bride

• 

  A bride during a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony in India.

• 

  Malayali Christian bride in white Sari

• 

  Nepalese Hindu Bride close up

• 

  Uzbek Bride (Tashkent)

References[link]

Find more about Bride on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Images and media from Commons
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource

Naeem Khan (born May 21, 1958 in Mumbai, India) is an Indian-born, American fashion designer. He is the designer and CEO for Naeem Khan, which was launched in 2003. His designs have been worn by celebrities including Beyoncé, Carrie Underwood, Eva Longoria, Leighton Meester, and Brooke Shields, and by First Lady Michelle Obama.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

1. Naeem Khan on Designing Michelle Obama’s “Priceless” First State Dinner Dress

2. Bowers, Paige (2009). "Starlet, Star Bright", Palm Beach Illustrated, January.

3. Reuters.com, April 13th, 2009.

4. First Lady Wears Naeem Khan Gown to State Dinner, November 24, 2009.

5. http://www.gossipgirlfashion.net/ Leighton Meester as Blair Waldorf, Retrieved May 21, 2012

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Naeem Khan designer profile at Fashion Model Directory
• Naeem Khan Collections featured on Style.com
• Naeem Khan Designer Profile & Collections on NYMag.com