Mendhi

I feel like it's been a little while. I'm starting to feel strange when I go a few days without blogging. But, it's been a busy few days! A cousin of mine was married last weekend so we had events starting on Thursday up until Saturday. If you follow my Instagram, you'll have seen some pictures from the day of the wedding. It was a lot of fun! I also got to see my favorite cousin (yes, I play favorites) who was whisked away after the weekend and I miss her already! I'm not sure that I've mentioned before that I come from a mixed background. My dads side of the family is Indian so this was an Indian wedding.

Very elaborate outfits and some fun traditions to go along with it. From games to celebrations and dancing; it's a big deal for someone to be married! As part of the celebrations, the bride and the women in the family adorn themselves with mendhi. In recent years, it's become a bit mainstream popular, but this has been an Indian tradition for years and years and years. You may know it as henna. But you will definitely know an Indian bride when you see one. She will usually have a very intricate design of mendhi front and backs of her hands and up onto her arms as well as on her feet and up the calves of the legs. As part of the bridal party and as part of her family, I went to have mine done on Friday morning. It is much simpler than the brides mendhi of course, but still pretty intricate! The mendhi mixture is prepared early on and it almost looks like a green mud mask upon completion. It is put into a tube (like the ones for cake icing) and drawn or piped onto the hands. You must let it set and keep that on your hands for a few hours before removing it. You don't realize how much you use your hands until you do this. You can't even open a car door let alone use the bathroom! After a few hours, upon removal, you are left with a reddish brown stain from the mixture which is what you see in the images here. I've always loved having this done and there aren't many occasions that call for it. It's pretty nice though that those who know about the tradition know that a wedding has taken place. It's like a walking reminder of this time of new beginnings and happiness for the new couple. It will eventually fade away over the next two or three weeks. In the mean time, I thought it would be fun to share with all of you. It's pretty cool, huh? Does your culture have any interesting traditions?

Talk soon,

Images by Andi Parmelee - Thanks! :)