Moroccan Henna Party ( with an instructive and amusing soda bottle dance ;) )

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Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on September 02, 1999 at 19:36:00:

This is excerpted from "Patience and Power, Women's Lives in a
Moroccan Village" by Susan Scharfer Davis, published by Schenkman
Publishing Company Inc. Cambridge Mass., 1980

"The initial part of the marriage is the "night of Henna," when the
bride's hands and feet are decorated with henna paste made from
pulverized henna leaves and water. The henna makes a red stain which
varies from orange to almost black depending on the time it is in
contact with the skin, and is used as a cosmetic by all married women.
It is often applied to cover the palm of the hand and sole of the
fooe entirely, but for a bride and for special occasions, an intricate
geometric design is created which may also cover the top of the foot
and the ankle, and the back of the hand. Before the night of the
henna, the bride-to-be and several close friends have gone to the
public bath (hammam) where she has washed and shaved all her pubic
hair for the first time. Since henna eventually comes off with water,
it is applied after the bath. Especially the application of henna to
the feet demonstrates the situation of the bride at this time: she is
an honored person and will not do any of the considerable work in
which her family is involved. Henna takes more than an hour to dry,
and it is then scraped off and reapplied to obtin a deeper color, so
having her hands and feet decorated means the bride is unable to
participate.

"The main party for the women occurs the next day, as may the one for
the men. The men's celebration will be described only briefly, as I
have not attended one (the only women present are dancing girls) but
have an account from my husband. The men, like the women, gather in a
large room and entertain each other by dancing. However, the men also
have professional entertainers in the form of women who play
instruments, dance and sing in front of them. These women are always
assumed to be prostitutes, as no "decent" woman would appear unveiled
before a group of men. Whether or not sexual activity takes place
after the party, I am unable to say, but during the party these women
dance suggestively in from tof different men and are rewarded with
bills (worth $1 or $2) stuck into their belts , and a good deal of
sex-related joking takes place. The dancers and men often drink
alcohol and/or smoke kif (marijuana), and the evening concludes with a
large meal of a meat stew, a cous-cous and a dessert.

"The woman's party occurs in the evening after the night of the henna,
and may go on until dawn. Near and distant relatives, friends and
neighbors are invited, as well as anyone else (perhaps the female
family members of a business acquaintance of the bride's father) to
whom the family owes a social debt. All of these women gather,
wearing their best qaftans brocaded in silver or gold and made up with
kohl around their eyes, henna on hands and feet and lipstick and rouge
if they are married. Younger women often have a baby in tow since it
needs to be nursed; older children are left at home if there is
comeone to watch them, or brought along and allowed to fall asleep as
the night goes on. Guests begin to arrive around 7:30 ot 8:, but
things do not really get started until 10 or 11 p.m. Instead of
professional entertainers, a group of friends or relatives will sing
and play drums, and one by one, the women are encouraged to dance for
one another. They finally dom amid great protestations of shyness and
inability to dance; to be too willing or skilled would open the way to
questions about one's past, since "professional" dancers are all
protitutes. In spite of their denials, most women are excellent and
very sensual dancers; little girls begin practicing at two or three
years. The style of the dance is more bump and grind than

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