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Bulgarian Gypsy Henna, and henna as an anti-pollution device
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Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on August 18, 1999 at 17:17:58:
This is quoted from "Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and Their Journey" by Isabel Fonseca, Vintage Books, New York, 1995 "....Emilia lit up at talk of her "Ceiz" (night of the henna). "I sat there with all my new things for the whole day, right there in the middle of the bed." It was easy to imagine Emilia as a homecoming queen on her float (the bed in her current flat was a draped, four-poster barge of diaphanous lilac fluff). From her wedding album Emilia gave me a picture of herself in all her finery, fronting her game-show haul of brightly colored alternately furry and lusterous gifts. She wore a white dress and stiff matching hat that resembled an upended bowl. with flowered tassels hanging down from it like stringed popcorn. ""What is that on your hands?" I asked, doubtful that the leathery taloned fingers in the photograph could be those of a thirteen-year-old. It was henna - which was used intermittantly to "clean" the bride during the week-long ritual of dances and naps and switched of clothes and, finally an all-girl "baptism" down at the municipal baths. ""The longer the henna stays on your hands, the longer your man will love you." Emilia shrugged. "That's what they say." The stained hands were echoes of the bloodstained sheet, which had already been made into a flag and waved through the quarter by a younger sister of Plamen, proud owner of one certified virgin-bride. " "...It wasn't marriage per se that did them [women] in [made them unclean, and thus in need of "cleaning" by henna]; it was the onset of menstruation (though the two usually coincided), from which point on, women had the power to pollute men. " !!!! The photograph of Emilia in this book shows fingertip dip henna, and patterning on the front and back of her hands. I'll hit the library today and see what I can work with to make a sheet of Bulgarian Gypsy patterns for henna artists......email me if you want a .gif sent to you......
Thanks to Dawn for bringing me "Bury Me Standing", as she knows I'm a hopeless addict of henna history and traditions!!!!! Anyone who can...READ THIS BOOK!
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