The pre-wedding Henna ceremony is experiencing a revival in Israel. None is more elaborate than the Yemenite, where the bride wears a heavy head piece decorated with flowers and jewels. Fascinating article and pictures in the New York Times (With thanks: Michelle)
In a town that in the 1950s served as an
immigrant transit camp for Jewish Yemenites, members gathered in an
elaborately decorated venue outfit to echo traditional life in Yemen,
complete with a fake well and photographs of the new Yemeni immigrants in Israel.
The town was over 1,000 miles from Yemen’s capital city of Sana’a,
which influenced the most striking look of the night: a tall cone-shaped
headpiece, the tashbuk, traditionally made of pearls and flowers, accessorized with silver and gold jewelry.
At a recent henna
celebration at the Yemeni Heritage Center in Rosh Ha’Ayin, Israel, the
bride had three ensemble changes, each representing a city or region in
Yemen. Although both the bride and groom were raised in Israel, honoring
their Yemeni heritage was something important to them.
“I am Yemenite on both sides, and it’s a celebration of my wedding,” the bride, Meyrav Yehud, 24, said. “These are my roots.”
The henna ceremony, a
pre-wedding event which has been a tradition in Asian, North African
and Middle Eastern cultures, where women paint designs, or in this case
place dye onto the skin of the bride and her guests, was held about a
week before the wedding. In Yemen, the henna dye was believed to symbolize fertility; the deeper the color of the dye, the better it was for the woman. In some cases, they would apply it for days.
The tradition of
henna ceremonies was popular in Yemeni society, with Jews and Muslims
sharing a common custom. In 1949, Jews from all over Yemen were
airlifted to Israel in a yearlong effort known as Operation Magic
Carpet. (Smaller numbers came earlier, pre-state, from the end of the 19th century, and in subsequent migrations.)
Many tried to bring traditional bridal garments and jewelry, but
because of their heavy weight, the majority of the items were left
behind. During early years after the founding of the state, Jews
emigrated from over 80 countries and from several ethnic groups, forging
a new Israeli identity that was often favored over the languages and
other aspects of diaspora identities. Mizrahi Jews from North African
and Middle Eastern countries were often looked down upon by the
Ashkenazi establishment and pressured to leave their diaspora culture
behind, and thus, henna ceremonies became smaller and more discreet
among the Jewish Yemenite community.
That changed somewhat in 1965 when the Israel Museum in Jerusalem featured an exhibit of a Jewish bride from Sana’a, Yemen.
Showcasing the garment was significant because it honored a part of the
diaspora culture. But it wasn’t until the late 1970s, as a result of a
political shift in Israel, that people started talking about ethnic
pride in Israel.
Dr. Carmella Abdar, a
professor in Folk Culture at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and
Achva Academic College, said that in contemporary Israel, the headpiece
is made in advance for the bride. But traditionally in Yemen, artisans
would assemble the headpiece by hand on the bride herself, who couldn’t
move for hours.
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