A Skokie Wedding Affair - Mehendi (Henna) Ceremony

I took a short, bumpy flight to Chicago, IL to attend a family wedding in the cozy Skokie suburb. It was probably bumpy because the pilot was more interested in visiting the loo every now and then and kept setting the plane on auto-pilot and then returning to put on full speed or something. Anyway, I digress, us Pakistanis are globally renowned for ... yes, Osama Bin Laden's final hideout and gun-down  ... and for our vibrant wedding and food culture. So, they were three days of delicious food, the most beautiful of colors, the most exotic of Pakistani dresses, and an emotional surge. Sit back and read about family, love, celebration, and color.

The festivities started with the Mehendi ceremony which celebrates the painting of the bride's hands with henna. Modern day henna painting is done by professional henna artists at salons or by appointment at home, so the bride arrives at the Mehendi event all ready. Contemporary wedding trends have made the Mehendi a joint bride-groom event. Primitively it was a private event held separately at the bride and groom's own houses among their own set of relatives. Go back to Islamic times, there was no such thing as Mehendi. So, as time went by and our needs of drama increased, all the beautiful wedding festivities came up. I love the colors associated with the ceremony. Each family has its own style of celebrating the event because originally there was no such custom . The festivity takes its roots from India from which Pakistan emerged as an independent state. The customs and rituals are all artistic creations of the Indians, so a lot of them go beyond my understanding. There is the Saat Suhaagun Rasm (7 married women inaugurate the ceremony and give blessings to the bride), followed by Moo Meetha (sweets are fed to the bride / groom), and possibly an Ubtan (ubtan paste is put on the bride / groom's face to make it glow). I have only heard of them and seen a couple of them happen, but theydon't carry any religious meaning (just a way of having fun! and beating down Bollywood!).

Basically, ladies in the family step up to the bride and groom, pay them compliments, feed them sweets, dab their hands with henna, and offer some money as a gift while dances continue all around them. The bride's hands were already beautifully done with henna, so they placed a napkin to avoid henna from staining them. The groom ... oh well ... he'll have to roam around with abstract art on his palm for a couple of weeks.

Both, the bride and the groom made similar entrances. Arrivals are usually planned out like parades. My cousins decided to keep it traditional. The bride and groom were escorted under beautifully printed wedding fabric, the Chunris, along with their respective siblings and cousins. I was one of the escorts, heading my cousin's parade. In my hands was a gorgeous platter (in the photo above) loaded with flowers, lighted lamps and candles, and henna.

The bride was wearing a beautiful yellow, the traditional Mehendi color. It perfectly complimented the groom's green, another Mehendi ceremony color. She had the dupatta (veil) drawn forward all the way to cover her face which is the most beautiful Pakistani bride look. Her hair were in a braid, again, very traditional.

The bridesmaids began to dance around the Mehendi platters they'd set on the floor. They danced a couple of circles to traditional Pakistani and Indian Mehendi / wedding songs. I was marveling at their skill of dancing in stilettos! Of course, some of the pretty ladies were Americans!

Mehendi songs have evolved as a genre of their own. They're about announcing happiness of the union of two people, supposedly in love. There's the sad element about the bride's departure from her childhood home where she grew up with family and friends. Usually she is referred to as a bird who is now ready to fly away. Even the strongest of hearts melt and eyes give away to tears. No, I didn't cry!