Story details
The Pakistani mehndi ceremony
Safina Kauser
Mainly, Pakistani people put mehndi or henna on the bride one or two days before the wedding. If the wedding is on Saturday or Sunday, they put the henna on the bride on Friday. The colour comes out really dark - just beautiful for the wedding. And on Friday night it's the main day when the women sit out all night singing songs. As they put henna on the bride they sing wedding songs. Usually they initialise the groom's name in the hand, and the groom has to find the name in the bride's hand, amongst all the pattern on the bride's hand. It's a way of making conversation with each other on the wedding night.
When I got married they put henna on both my hands, but these days the bride has henna all the way up to her elbow and on their feet.
It's very detailed and intricate, and nowadays you can get professional people to do this. I have seen women with this and the result is very sophisticated - it looks really beautiful. Men have henna on their hands too. In Pakistan they even apply henna on their fingernails which looks like they have had nail polish on.
This story was collected by Bradford Community Environment Project in collaboration with Spice! and Bradford Council.
