Please click on the above link for a really good description of this latest festival.
Chaucer's Birthday aside, there really are so many festivals and holidays here that they literally run together in a week.
I have been seeing the shops get decorated with hanging strings of lights, and every evening there seem to be more of them. I believe this is for Diwali (Festival of Lights) coming next week. So naturally, I assumed that the masses of bangle sellers and mehdi appliers who materialized in our local markets over this past week (crazy, booming business every evening) was all part of the Diwali event.
Wrong-O
Another Festival has surfaced BEFORE Diwali - and is happening today - four days after the full moon. In preparation of this, nearly every married woman (Sikh and Hindu) in this part of India observes the occasion by having mehndi put on their hands, by fasting for the whole day and dressing up in new outfits. The above link will give you more details, but I can tell you that the ladies here are CRAZY about this event. At night in the market, outside in near dark conditions, there are countless mendhi appliers (mostly men) busily at work on a pair of hands with many women lined up for their turn. My friend at work, Amandeep, told me that last year she went to the market to get mehndi at 8 pm and did not get her hands done until 1:30 a.m.
This year, she and Harsimran decided to take a half-day leave on Friday to get the mehndi done. Jaspreet stayed back with me, and as luck would have it, Sheenam, from across the hall, admitted to being very good at mehndi applicaton so offered to do Jaspreet's hands. The job pictured below took 1-1/2 hours. Sheenam was BENT on putting some on me (didn't really want) but finally talked me into my name with Rob's in a circle. In the intricate work on Jaspreet, Sheenam has worked in both Jaspreet's and her husband's names. Kind of like Hirschfeld and "NINA.
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| Jaspreet and me with our merhndi designs done by Sheenam |
This mehndi is gooey henna, appearing browny-black when applied to the skin. Once you wash off the goo (about two hours later) you are left with browny-red stains where the goo was - and I understand it lasts for many days.
Hansi
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