The marriage certificate indicates the Peranakan wedding couple’s (Chee Lak Neo and Arthur Lee Siak Keng) and their fathers’ names. The inscriptions ‘Syonan Marriage Registry’ and year ‘2604’ (1944) of the Japanese calendar provide rare visual documentation of Singaporean’s marriage during the Japanese Occupation. Peranakan weddings were typically elaborate ceremonies that lasted up to twelve days. They involved numerous customs and rituals, such as the tea ceremony on the sohja tiga hari (third day) and presenting the prove of virginity on the duablas hari (twelfth day). Wedding portraits often show the bridegroom in suit and the bride in traditional Peranakan wedding attire. Although more brides adopted Western wedding gowns around the mid-20th century, they could also have a change of traditional outfits for certain events during the wedding. The objects from this group acquisition show how the Peranakan wedding was simplified during wartime, while some traditions were retained.
