Skip to main content

Kōrero: Clothes

First communion dress, 1930

Image
First communion dress, 1930

These girls undertook the Catholic first communion at St Anne's Catholic Church in Manurewa, Auckland, around the 1930s. First communion is when an individual first receives the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist (the ceremony in which a person eats the bread and wine symbolising the body and blood of Christ). Girls wear white gowns and sometimes veils, while boys usually wear a white shirt, symbolising purity. 

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Auckland Libraries

Reference: Footprints 02986

by W. I. Sefton

Photograph reproduced by courtesy of Raymond Peguero

This item has been provided for private study purposes (such as school projects, family and local history research) and any published reproduction (print or electronic) may infringe copyright law. It is the responsibility of the user of any material to obtain clearance from the copyright holder.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Fiona McKergow, Clothes – Clothing and identity, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/41166/first-communion-dress-1930 (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Fiona McKergow, i tāngia i te 18 March 2013.