Mehendi Ceremony Rituals and Customs
Mehendi A Wedding Ceremony:
The wedding is a sacred incident in everyone’s life. The wedding contains many rituals and customs. The Bride and groom followed traditions with the guidance of priests. Among the ways, the Mehendi ritual is one. Mehendi Ceremony is a pre-wedding ritual celebrated at Grand in India. According to historians, this ritual came as part of the wedding in the 15th century. When Babur founded the Mughal Emperor in India, the rulers brought Mehendi plants to India. Initially, the Mehendi leaves were made as paste and applied to the Bride’s hands. Recently, the power has been on the hands and feet of the Bride. After some time, the paste dried and left red behind the dried Mehendi.
The Mehendi ceremony has a deep significance; the colour of the Mehendi symbolizes the strength and bondage between the couple. The Bride believes that her Mehendi dried with bright red colour indicates life would be happier and more prosperous. The elders in the family believe that the brightness of the red colour tells how much a bride’s soon-to-be-husband loves her.
The Bride’s feet and hands are designed beautifully with Henna paste during the Mehendi ceremony. A Bride retains her Mehendi for a long time; this indicates husband loves her more, and the bondage strengthens for a long time between the couple. This ceremony conducts at the Bride’s house two days before the marriage. The female play a significant role in this ceremony. During the ceremony, the participants wore colourful traditional Indian dresses. They create great pomp by dancing while playing vibrant music.
After the wedding, the Bride is not allowed to do any housework until all the Henna vanishes its red colour. In North India, during the Mehendi ceremony, the expert draws pictures of the Bride and groom over the hands.
Availability of Henna:
These plants are generally grown in hot weather regions, especially in India, Pakistan, Egypt, Morocco, Persia, and other Asian and North African countries. The plant’s leaves are made as paste and applied on the hands and feet of the Bride. The plant’s flowers, leaves and twigs are chopped into pieces and assembled in powder for business purposes. Tea, Tamarind, Lemon, Sugar and Buttermilk were added to the powder to make the Henna paste. Some different oils are also mixed into the paste before applying it to the hands.