A Good Start for a New Home : Henna Night

Where I live, if you see someone with henna dye in her hand, you can guess that she had a celebration of someone close's wedding recently.

I will take you to a great South-Eastern henna night.

A Henna Night is a traditional celebration in Anatolia and takes place usually on the Friday before the wedding and normally it is a ladies night-in, celebrating the bride's new life and her farewell to her previous life within her family. A Henna Dying is a symbol of devotion of the girl for the new family. For us people, here in this part of Istanbul, it is fun and it feels good to be a part of the tradition of centuries.

And in our henna night yesterday we had the guys too..




The henna paste is brought in a tray, with candles placed in the henna. The invitees dance with the tray on top of their heads accompanied by traditional henna night songs, davul and zurna. The emotion is packed up in the video for you, to hear the music, davul, zurna, clapping and zilgits. Zilgit is the female high voices you will hear in the background and is a symbol of celebration.

First the bride and the groom's hands are dyied then the invitees.

Then starts the dances with the candles in hands and on the head..

It was so beautiful to see them dancing in the light of the candles moving with their figures.
If you see someone with henna dye in her hand, you can guess that she had a celebration of someone close's wedding recently.And that she might have been very happy and forgot about her troubles for a while, even of loosing her own home..