No Pakistani wedding is ever complete without the Mehendi. Whichever part of the country the bride may be from, her hands are adorned with the lovely red hue of the mehendi (mehndi).
Beauty parlors have special bridal mehendi packs – these days, the brides have a choice between the Pakistani mehendi (which covers pretty much most of the palm) and the Arabic mehendi (in which the pattern is drawn to one side of the hand). The cost of applying the mehendi may vary from parlor to parlor.
Mehendi (Mehndi) is associated to lots of things – a good dark 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 mehndi design; and the wedding night cannot commence until the groom has found the names. Some examples of popular traditional images used in mehndi designs are the peacock, which is the national bird if India, the lotus flower, and an elephant with a raised trunk, which is a symbol of good luck.
From adorning brides’ hands, to being used to make hip tattoos on arms and bellies, Mehendi / Mehndi or Henna has gone international. Once a typically Pakistani custom and an indispensable part of a brides makeup, Mehendi has gone cosmopolitan thanks to the attention it gets through stars like Madonna.
Traditional mehndi or henna designs are delicate and intricate, ranging from simple mehndi designs of balls to delicate flowers to messages and initials. There have even been some modern designs based on works by Picasso and van Gogh. There has also been some who favor the use of henna to tattoo wedding bands, bangles and anklets. It is pretty much anything goes with mehendi because it is non-permanent and always interesting.
Of course as in any work of art, the application is the most important factor. The design is only as good as the artist who applies the henna. Mehendi is a temporary, painless tattoo that fades within a month, with no need for expensive laser treatments. It may be applied to the feet as well as other parts of the body, but it is most commonly used to enhance the loveliness of the hands of a woman.
Henna, or alternately heena is the pigment used for the process, is from the henna plant that resembles a tea plant. Legend has it that Cleopatra used henna to dye her hair, to make it more lustrous and beautiful. The leaves are gathered and dried and made into a fine powder, which is then mixed with tea, coffee, lime, water and eucalyptus oil to make a thick paste. It is usually applied with the use of a cone made of rolled plastic, much like a baker’s icing tube, and it is used much in the same way. The size of the hole will determine the fineness of the lines.
