Henna Party for Roy & Irit (February 13)

I must admit, I'm beginning to feel like this blog is a bit of an obligation. A lot of you email me (many have been slack lately but that's ok) and ask me why I haven't posted a new blog yet, and what's taking so long... well I realised that by the time I actually sit down to write, I've forgotten what it was I wanted to write in the first place, and I don't want to write just for the sake of it, so I put it off until a later time when perhaps my memory won't fail me.

So this morning was one such rare time when I woke up actually remembering everything I've done since I last wrote! First of all, I sent an email out recently announcing new photos up on my album of the henna party and skiing expedition and wedding. If you didn't get that, then check out
http://au.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sarahknopman/my_photos

Because there's simply too much for me to catch up on, I'm going to divide this into 3 blogs. So this is about the henna party:


The henna party was awesome. First of all, some of you emailed me and understood that it was the wedding. Let me clarify: Morroccans like to party, so the henna party is just another excuse to party more, and it takes place one week before the actual wedding. Only close family & friends are invited. The henna party I went to was on the more extravagant side as far as henna parties go. First of all, close family meant 150+ people. It's pretty much exactly like a wedding- people bring presents, there's a beautifully decorated venue, catered food, a hired band or DJ, camera men, and most importantly- a dancefloor. Eli's cousin Roy, and his (Russian)bride-to-be, Irit, were dressed in beautiful traditional Moroccan garb and they had 2 costume changes throughout the night! (I've seen shops selling these costumes but I always wondered who actually buys that stuff. Now I know.) The hall was lavishly decorated and there was a beautiful tent where the two families sit together and accept gifts of beautiful sweets. When it came to the actaul henna ceremony, everyone puts on a Morroccan dress and dances around the mother of the bride/groom who is carrying the bowl of henna with trays of sweets.

Eli was the champion of balancing the sweets on his head. In fact if you check out all the photos you'll see the tray hardly ever left his head. It's not fair though, he has all that padding :-)
Everyone puts a blob of henna on their hand and dances around showing their chamsa- which comes from the hebrew word 'chamesh' meaning 5, so the outstretched hand is symbolic of warding off evil. Something like that anyway...


Of course Eli's grandma did her impressive lalalalalla tongue flicking war cry right next to me (again!) and this time into a microphone- and the night got off to being one massive party. Eli was the life of the party (surprise surprise).


What I found particularly fascinating about the night was the interesting merge between the traditional with the modern. Even though people were donning traditional garb and performing a traditional ritual, there was an overwhelming elemenet of kitsch throughout everything. The music for example- after a bit of Israeli stuff, and then some folk-like music where people were dancing around glasses shoulder-to shoulder (like my favourite scene in fiddler on the roof), the English and techno stuff came out. The morroccans took a breather and all the Russians got up and started dancing. Hardcore. There was one funny dance like the macarena, where everyone just knew all the steps and they danced in a box. Eli's grandma was just standing in the middle and clapping- totally out of beat, and at one stage she was swaying with her hands over her ears. Have I mentioned that Eli's grandma is extremely cute? It feels a little patronising to call an old person cute, but she is! She boasted the other week about how she never wore make up in her life! She was telling us all at the dinner table how she never put on any cosmetics, and she was getting so excited about it and it was a blatant lie because there are photos of her all over the house where she's looking all done up for some family member's circumcision/barmitzvah/henna party/wedding and she's got make up on... Anyway, she screams whenever she says anything, and she was trying to emphasise how she never used anything and she looks really great for her age- and no one was really believing her she just went and lifted up her skirt to show me her legs. She's such a laugh! (And yes, if anyone is interested in Eli's grandma, she does have great legs.) She is also the only one who likes Eli's hair. Every family member (close as well as extended) constantly comment on his hair and tell him he needs to cut it, but his grandma loves to plait it and she tells everyone Eli is natural and doesn't use any rubbish in his hair and has the best hair of anyone she knows. It's very funny seeing (and hearing) her defend him all the time.

Anyway, so all in all, I say I'm willing to marry a Morroccan just so that I can have one of them henna parties for myself! :-)