Mehendi has great significance in all Eastern
wedding traditions, and no wedding is complete without
the decoration of the brides 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, with all
the brides female friends and relatives getting together to celebrate. They
spend the evening singing traditional mehendi songs, which tell of the good
luck and blessings that mehendi will bring, and of its significance with
different in-laws.
In Gujarat, mehendi tattooing is part of the Adivasi womens wedding traditions. Leaves and flowers are used as templates around which complex designs are painted on the brides 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 brides 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 colour 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 bridegrooms hands are also decorated, and communities in Kashmir and Bangladesh have evolved particular mens designs. A current trend in the UK is for traditional patterns in the form of a ring or bracelet.
|