A cultural experience... Mendhi is not just for henna tattoos

So as I have been saying in my previous posts I went on a road trip this past weekend.  The road trip was for a childhood friend's wedding but I must say that it was most definitely a cultural experience for me as I can count the amount of Hindu weddings I have attended.

As promised in my twitter post, here is more details about the Mendhi. On Wednesday evening the bride had her Mendhi night but I missed it so my cousin, Charne, and I went and got ours done at a salon in Springfield Park. I wasn't really sure what pattern I wanted but we discussed it and eventually we came up with this...

This is the progressive pictures:

And then Charne had her turn:

This is how the Mendhi looked when she was done and then we had to sit and wait for it to dry and take to our hands.

When we rinsed it off, this is what it looked like and I must be honest I forgot that the Mendhi gets darker the next day.

This is Day Two:

This is Day Three:

We were applying Eucalyptys oil and Vaseline to get it darker more quickly. Now it's days later and the Mendhi is starting to fade but a lot of people at work have noticed it.

FYI: Mendhi aka Henna is used for the bride and the groom but apparently the
popular beliefs that are associated with this tradition:

• The darkness of the mehendi colour on a bride’s hand represents the deep love between the would-be-couple.
• The mehendi colour also shows the love and understanding between the bride and her mother-in-law.
• The longer the mehendi retains its colour, the more auspicious it is for the newlyweds.
• Mehendi is also deemed to be a symbolic representation of fertility. 

Have you ever applied Mendhi? Would you ever apply it?