An Olden Persian Wedding Custom Goes Modern

Weddings are steeped in tradition, but where do those rituals come from? “Traditions,” a new column, explores the origins of various wedding customs from around the world. Ever since Mandana Ansari was a little girl, she knew she wanted to recognize her Iranian heritage by having a “Sofreh Aghd” on her wedding day. “I’ve always loved…

Tours for the Swimming-Obsessed

During the pandemic, when Miriam Leitko couldn’t swim because pools were closed, the lifelong swimmer built a lap pool at her home in Willis, Texas. As soon as travel restrictions were lifted in 2021, she signed up for a weeklong trip to Hawaii with SwimVacation, a Maine-based tour operator that specializes in open-water swimming. “Open-water…

Love Letter: A Second Skin to Escape Racism

“On gay dating apps, East Asians routinely face dehumanization that reduces us to nothing more than featureless clones in the eyes of others,” Preston Gyuwon So writes in this week’s Modern Love essay. “We either get the racist ‘no Asians’ or ‘no rice’ cold shoulder, or we get fawning treatment that can feel worse —…