Mehndi is a small tropical shrub. The leaves of the shrub are dried and ground into a paste. The paste is typically applied to hands, legs, and feet using a small cone--something similar to the pastry tools used for cake decorating.
A mehndi artist draws the paste onto your body in intricate patterns. Depending upon the intricacy of the drawings, this could be a long and arduous process (for the artist and you!). You must then wait several hours for the paste to dry at which point you scrape it off and reveal a rust-red temporary tattoo (LA Ink has nothing over these designs!).
Women usually decorate themselves with mehndi for festivals, special occasions, and for weddings. In fact, it's a wedding must. The idea is that the darker your mehndi comes out, the more your groom will love you and the more prosperous your marriage. (Some traditions also say that the deeper the mehndi color, the more you'll be on your mother-in-law's good side. Give me a double dose! :-)
What Kind of Party?
There are lots of different parties: birthday parties, Tupperware parties, and yes, mehndi parties. Woo hoo! The day before a wedding, the bride and all of the women gather for the mehndi ritual. During the ritual, a bride-to-be and her female friends and family will be decorated with mehndi. During the ritual, the ladies get down with song and dance.
My mehndi party will take place on November 28th.
Maybe I'll get little chile patterns hidden in my mehndi design to give my brother's tattoo a run for its money!
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