celebration of a moment
Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on March 20, 2000 at 15:27:16:
In Reply to: Y get a "henna" when u can get a real one? posted by h3n+0 on March 20, 2000 at 13:39:16:
In most traditional hennaeing countries, women wore tattoos and henna
at the same time! They are for very different purposes, and put on
the appropriate parts of the body. You really can't tattoo palms and
soles. The women traditionally loved the contrast of the blueish
tattoos with their red henna, and highlighted both with tons of
jewelery, colored cosmetics and even gold leaf on your faces.
Henna is the marker for a celebration, such as a wedding,
circumcision, birth of a child, naming a child, end of a fast or
pilgrimage .... these are all times to henna when one celebrates the
beauty of the moment and the comradeship of your friends and family.
You celebrate the moment, and then let it pass. Henna was also used
for the transitory moments when one needs extra protection, such as
rites of passage. The tattooing was for permanent concerns, like
tribal identity, disease prevention, rape prevention and protection
from evil.
So.....it's absolutely NOT a choice of one being "better" than the
other ..... it's a matter of them being complementary and each
appropriate for it's own placement and purpose.
Some things are perfect, precious, lovely and transitory. Flowers,
dawns, infants, virgins, love, holidays.....AND HENNA.... they all
come, we celebrate them, then we let them go. (If we have any pretense
at all of being mature....).Henna is the marker of those beautiful
fragile things. Tattoos are for something else entirely.
Perhaps you just haven't thought about embracing the loveliness and
fragility of a moment, and then having the good sense to let go.
