henna

I got invited to my first Egyptian wedding. Soad, an ex-AIESECer here, was sweet enough to give me an invitation to see how the entire thing plays out in this country: from the signing of the marriage contract in a mosque, to the henna night to the wedding reception itself.

Yesterday was her henna night — an all-girls dance party held in her house in Mohandiseen. it’s interesting that in the south Asian cultures and even here, it’s the women who usually get a bachelorette party (mehndi’s/ holuds/henna nights) and the men don’t usually do anything. Whereas in the West, its usually the Bachelor night for the boys that’s a big feature before any wedding.

Anyway, the henna night ended up being a blast — upon entering, I got handed a belly chain to tie around my ass (this made me realize it was a mistake to come wearing my salwar kameez, a belly chain requires something tight to be worn around the ass, like tight pants or a tight skirt).

There are companies here that provide full services for your henna night — from the dj to the henna artist, to a female photographer and 2-3 belly dancers, who also dressed Soad up in different outfits and played the part of egging Soad’s guests to cheer and clap for her as she paraded around and danced for us. There were a few things they made her do which made me wonder where they were derived from, as they didn’t seem like Egyptian traditions. They kept taking Soad upstairs to put on different costumes, with about 5-6 dress changes, once as a Bedouin girl with the niqab on her face, and once she had a Hawaiian hula skirt on (which I’m certain is not an Egyptian custom) and so on. It was pretty funky anyhow.

The belly dancers. One of them totally blew me away. She was probably the best I have ever seen perform. She was totally not attractive, kinda plump, but her constant cheeky smile, her energy and her dancing abilities, totally made up for it. Now I understand why men go ga-ga over fat, ugly bellydancers. I literally couldn’t take my eyes of this woman’s ass, and for the first time ever, I went home wanting to learn to belly-dance myself. I am strongly of the belief though, that belly dancing does not make you lose weight around the belly, contrary to popular belief. This woman must do this routine every single night, and as confident as I am that her abs are probably made of stone, she certainly had a healthy slab of fat above them.

So I went home having attempted some belly-shaking', getting some henna tattoos, eating an awesome buffet dinner, and I also found out that I know a lot more Egyptian songs than I realized! Waiting on train platforms and keeping my window open for street wedding music has clearly paid off…