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celebration of a moment
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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.
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