Pre-Wedding Henna

Last night I went to a reception called a Henna that took place after a pre-wedding event. During the pre-wedding event, the bride is “cleansed” for her husband by being submerged in a pool of water. I did not go to this as it’s for the ladies only.

The Henna reception was a combination of Israeli and Moroccan traditions as both sides of the family have similar roots. The food was delicious, especially some roasted sweetened lamb that I ate. Sorry I didn’t get any pictures of the food…

Here’s the bride and groom during the post-dinner festivities:

The entire extended family gathered around the couple and ceremoniously delivered the tradition-required 41 types of desserts in wrapped plates, danced a little, and generally were feeling festive.

After the desserts were “delivered”, another tradition was done where the henna was placed into the palms of all the guests.

This is done for good luck and is kept on the hand for a while, which results in a brown stain being left behind after washing it off. Here’s a shot of Nicole with the paste in her hand:

All in all, it was a very interesting cultural experience and I thank Ruma’s family for letting me participate.