Childhood Memories of Henna

December 2005/June 2006 Childhood Memories of Henna: We used to have some henna powder that we kept watering down, so the first batch would last us for two to three weeks. When we were little we used to be so happy to receive a big blob of henna in the middle of our palms, whilst the grown-ups would have such elaborate designs. We were content with our blobs and would run away brandishing our dots proudly as if they were trophies. We didn’t care about the fact that it just took seconds to apply and that the grown – ups had such complicated designs, when we just had our blobs and were happy. Every Eid, my aunty would put mehndi on my hands. We used a type of henna by steaming tea and sugar together in a steaming device made of 2 tins and a small burner with a lid. We would collect the droplets of condensation inside the tin, which would be a mixture of tea and sugar. This mixture would be dark enough to create stained patterns on our hands and would last for two or three days. We would be so happy, as we had made our own henna. We used sharp sticks to decorate our hands with this mixture. We would go over the patterns twice to make the patterns last longer. Photo of Handful of Henna by Chris Saunders Some people when they have a wedding they put henna on their hands, different patterns and the Eid day they put on henna they wearing new dress and everything, some people they go to meet family, visit family and they put it on their head as well and on their hair. Its ok because in this country you put nail varnish on they put henna its ok, some people put it on every week. I can do design not too nice cos’ you know some people are learning how to do it nice, you do like flowers or like leaves or something else like hearts or something like that.