Religion and the New Immigrants 231
Laotian Buddhists, Indian Hindus, and Greek Orthodox, go to great effort and expense
to import building materials, architects, and artisans to recreate physical structures from
the home country. For example, members of a South Indian Hindu temple brought
dozens of artisans to Houston over several years to carve the images that grace the
white stone pillars in the temple. During the dedication ceremony, twelve priests were
brought from India to bless the temple in traditional Hindu ceremonies ( Jacob and
Thakur 2000). Likewise, a Vietnamese Buddhist center in Houston imported statues of
buddhasatvas, as well as tiles for the temple’s roof, to create a sense of “home away from
home” for temple members (Huynh 2000). When these visual images are combined
with the sound of native vernaculars, home-country musical instruments and songs,
the smell of incense and native foods, the feel of oils and sacred objects, most immigrant
congregations flood the senses with physical reminders of the native lands from which
their members came.
By incorporating ethnic practices and holidays into formal religious ceremonies,
immigrant congregations help their members feel more “at home” in a strange land.
The familiar ancestral altars and ash houses, as well as traditional Buddhist customs
that accompany the forty-nine days of mourning for a deceased person, remind mem-
bers of both their religious and ethnic roots. Holidays such as the Chinese New Year
and ‘Id al-Fitr, the Islamic feast of fast-breaking during Ramadan, are widely celebrated
in temples, churches, and mosques across the country and create a sense of ethnic
pride within many immigrant communities. The diverse images of the Virgin Mary
among Hispanic immigrants stem from their home country images and devotions
(D ́ıaz-Stevens 1993a; Flores 1994; Tweed 1997; D ́ıaz-Stevens and Stevens-Arroyo 1998;
Wellmeier 1998; Sullivan 2000b).
Furthermore, most immigrant congregations sponsor secular activities, such as
meals, festivals, holiday celebrations, fundraisers, language classes, citizenship classes,
and youth activities. One way in which immigrant religious institutions often differ
from those in the home country is that they develop community centers, along with
places of worship, social spaces, and activities whose function it is to maintain social
ties among members and the passing on of both religious and ethnic culture to the
next generation (Ebaugh and Chafetz 2000c).
The serving of ethnic food in immigrant congregations is another way in which
members celebrate and pass on their culture. Communal eating is a regular and fre-
quent feature of congregational life, enjoyed at the central worship site, at homes after
fellowship, cell, or religious study meetings, and as part of domestic religious celebra-
tions (Flores 1994; Leon 1998; McGuire and Spickard 1998; Ebaugh and Chafetz 2000b). ́
In many cases, women provide most, if not all, of the work of securing supplies, prepar-
ing and cooking the food, and then serving it. The preparation of the traditional food
often provides women with the opportunity to instruct their daughters in ethnic cus-
toms (Orsi 1985; Ebaugh and Chafetz 1999).
Alongside community-based religious practices, many immigrant religions cen-
ter a substantial part of their religious observances on domestic rituals practiced at
home shrines or altars. In addition to daily prayers said at these sacred domestic
spaces, in many instances life cycle events, such as infant blessings, engagements, wed-
dings, and remembrances of the dead, are enacted there (Brown 1991; Wellmeier 1998;
Huynh 2000; Rustomji 2000). These domestic religious practices function to reproduce
traditional culture for family members.