MEHNDI IN WEDDING

Mehndi - The Vital Ingredient in Any Wedding
A traditional Indian / Pakistani wedding is one that lasts for many days. We have perhaps the most flamboyant and colorful weddings, which in my opinion, are not matched by any other community or society in the world. Whereas the an average European wedding have no more than an average of 75 cards printed, we have an average of a whopping 300 cards per wedding per side. i.e. 300 from the brides side and 300 from the grooms side! (by the way the most cards we have printed for one wedding was 1250 cards! - from the boys side) And when we get married we do not usually invite just a handful of selected people, we invite everyone and in some cases anyone! Our weddings are not boring, as anyone who has ever attended an Indo/Pakistani will tell you, it is one big party, full of color song and dance, lasting over many days and in some cases weeks. The last four to five days leading up to the wedding day itself are all planned and organized with a whole array of activities on each of the evenings. We have many delightful and tasteful dishes on our menus preparation for which starts many days before the big day itself.Many of our wedding traditions have now been taken up by the European or Western communities, such the decorating the house with lights and decorations a few days before the wedding, elaborate decoration of the wedding vehicle, be it a limousine, a Rolls Royce or a horse-carriage, and of course not forgetting the application of Mehndi or Henna on the hands and feet, (and sometimes on many other place!) of all involved in the wedding. Mehndi is not synonymous with the Western wedding but is now huge business in the Western world with the likes of Maddona, Darryl Hanna, Prince and Demi Moore to name just a few who have been seen in public with Mehndi tattoos on parts of their anatomies...and guess where they got the idea from? Mehndi is a short-term tattoo, and not something you are lumbered with for the rest of your life, just because someone had dared you, or were perhaps drunk or thought it was a great idea at the time! This is a tattoo you can have as often as you like, wherever you like and it is totally safe, and only lasts for a few days. It is made of all natural ingredients so you can be sure of not getting any harmful or cancerous elements in your skin. The application of Mehndi in our culture is a sign of a joyous occasion, it is almost always used on celebratory occasions, such as Diwali, Eid, wedding, engagement and so on. I myself have tried, on a few occasions to dabble with Mehndi patterns, the best tattoo I have done is that of a heart on the back of my hand, and that's about it! But I am sure we all seen or know Mehndi artists who are totally brilliant. Many Mehndi artists are known to command fees from anywhere between 150 to 1500 USD just for one wedding. Not to mention the gifts such as sarees, jewelery, sweets and other gifts that they expect! The ultimate idea is to make the bride, who is about to start a new life away from her family, feel like a princess. Mehndi being applied at weddings used to be a small family affair with a handful of close family friends being invited to a small function at home a day or so before the wedding. But now it has gone public! It is not unusual to see a large hall being booked, with fancy floral arrangements, huge guest lists and four or five course meals, including a very loud (and sometimes annoying) DJ to entertain the guests. Mehndi traditionally used to be only applied to the bride but now the groom's side also insist that it be applied on the groom too (any excuse for a party).It is at these ceremonies where the bride and groom are fed (and sometimes force fed - but in all in good fun) with sweets or mithai, by almost all senior members present. As well as being a lavishly colorful cosmetic, Mehndi is also supposed to have many healing qualities, many herbal doctors still recommend the use of Mehndi for some ailments, such as dry skin and to hasten the healing of cuts and scratches. It also acts a hair conditioner when applied on the head and is also know said to stop hair loss by strengthening the roots of the hair. Mehndi is aledged to have been brought to India by the Mugals in 12 A.D. after it had been used for centuries in the Middle East and Africa. Some of the earliest documentation of Mehndi comes ancient Egypt, where it was used as a dye to stain the fingers and toes prior to mummification. Mehndi or henna comes in many different shades or colors, ranging from reddish orange to brown-black. Other colors available are usually artificially mixed and have dyes added to the natural henna, these usually do not last as long as natural Mehndi. Natural ones can last for anything between 1-2 weeks depending on the number of times the colored area is washed and on the body temperature. So if you need to get rid of the Mehndi quickly color wash the area often, and stay in hot temperature, as sweating will also increase its fading. Ready-made Mehndi is readily available from most shops in most countries, you can also buy ready made stencils to help you apply it. Usually professional Mehndi artists are hired to apply Mehndi, but it can be great fun for the whole family if you do it yourself. So here is a step by step method of making and applying henna: 1) Fill half a cup of natural ground henna powder. You can also add Tea, coffee, cloves, lemon and sugar to enhance the colors and give a deeper shade, which will stay on for much longer, but these are purely optional. 2) Add it to a bowl that will not stain. My advice is to use an empty margarine container (so even if it does stain it doesn't matter as you were going to throw it away anyway), the margarine container will also have a lid to help you store the mehndi and not let it dry so soon. 3) Add a small amount of boiling water to the bowl along with a few drops of Jasmin oil and mix until the paste it is similar in consistency as toothpaste. 4) Replace the lid on the container and allow the paste to settle for about 2-3 hours. 5) You can use almost anything to apply the mehndi, depending on the intricacy of your design, but the most commonly used are toothpicks. 6) About 3 hours is a decent length of time for allowing the mehndi paste to settle on your skin. 7) You can also apply lemon juice with sugar to keep the paste on your skin for longer and not let it flake away. 8) Once dried simply flake off the dried mehndi, but do not wash the applied area for at least 12 hours.

MEHENDI WEDDING CUSTOMS

MEHENDI WEDDING CUSTOMS
The occasion of Mehendi / Mehandi is fun a filled ritual, which is celebrated mainly by the bride's family. Today in our Hindu culture weddings are no more a small affair with only get together of family members and friends. But it is celebrated in a much more larger canvas than earlier. It is a lavish and elaborate affair nowadays. So pre wedding functions are no more a private affair. It is celebrated with equal fun and enthusiasm as the main wedding.Mehendi has great significance in all Eastern wedding traditions, and no wedding is complete without the decoration of the bride's hands and feet - in many cultures on both the front and back of the hands right up to the elbow, and on the bottom half of the legs. The Mehendi night is something like a hen night in the West, with all the bride's female friends and relatives getting together to celebrate. They spend the evening singing traditional Mehendi songs, which tell of he good luck and blessings that Mehendi will bring, and of its significance with different in-laws.The Mehendi night is common in the Gulf regions of Saudi, Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE. Here, the celebration is generally held a few days prior to the wedding, and is strikingly similar to that of Indian culture. The bride has her hands and feet painted, and traditional songs are sung by the mothers and grandmothers, who tease her about her future. Mehndi also features in other Middle Eastern celebrations such as births and christenings. In Gujarat, Mehendi tattooing is part of the Adivasi women's wedding traditions. Leaves and flowers are used as templates around which complex designs are painted on the bride's face and arms.The Mehendi ceremony is considered so sacred in some religions that unless the mother-in-law has applied the first dot of Mehendi to the bride's hand, the painting cannot go ahead. The Mehendi dot is considered to be a symbolic blessing, bestowal of which permits the new daughter-in-law to beautify herself for the groom.Many brides believe that the deeper the color of the Mehendi, the deeper the love they will receive from their in-laws, in particular the mother-in-law, whose blessing is particularly important to an Asian bride. Hence she does whatever she can to ensure that the Mehendi stain is deep. A good deeply-coloured design is a sign of good luck for the marital couple. It is common for the names of the bride and groom to be hidden in the Mehendi design; and the wedding night cannot commence until the groom has found the names. A bride is not expected to perform any housework until her wedding Mehendi has faded. While much of the symbolism of Mehendi designs are being lost some examples remain. The peacock, which is the national bird of India, the lotus flower, and an elephant with a raised trunk, which is a symbol of good luck, are all popular images.In some customs the bridegroom's hands are also decorated, and communities in Kashmir and Bangladesh have evolved particular men's designs. A current trend in the UK is for traditional patterns in the form of a ring or bracelet.