There is a festival every year here called Kervichot, where the women fast and pray for their husband's long life. They will go the entire day without eating or drinking anything. Then at night they will do pooja (worship) outside next to the moon, take a flour sifter, look at the moon through the flour sifter, then bring it to their husband's face. After this they will eat and drink. Usually the women go to great lengths to make themselves look beautiful.
Many will go to the beauty parlour the week before and get waxing/threading/mehendi done. The day of the actual festival, this year on the 10th, the women have a day off from work. They will stay at home and continue to beautify themselves and rest. It is also on this day that the women are supposed to have a break from all their work, however, when I asked my friend "if the women don't do the work, then who does?"
she replied that although the women aren't SUPPOSED to do any work, they usually still have to do the cooking and cleaning because the men won't. She did say that some men will help that day, but most women continue to do work. < It was on this day that my sister told me to follow her downstairs to her house. I went inside and she proceeded to tell me to start putting on her gold jewelry, which she has a LOT of.
(Gold is a sign of wealth and status. Kind of like the American equivalent of diamonds.) She then said that she didn't think she'd get to see my marriage so she wanted to see what I would look like as a bride.
I really don't know what the obsession with getting us married over here is, but when we get around too many ladies at one time the topic ALWAYS comes up and they ALWAYS decide to dress us up. After putting on ALL her gold as well as the HUGE nose marriage nose ring, she dressed me in her sari and told me how to pose for "my wedding snaps".
I tried not to laugh as she proceeded to snap away, but she told me I wasn't allowed to smile too much! It was like my first modeling shoot. NOT that I plan on getting married here, BUT if I ever did, this is probably close to what I would look like in national dress. Sorry tried to upload more pictures of mehendi, but they wouldn't upload! I LOVE April's pose in this one.....yes that is my studly room mate senior portrait model extraordinaire!
There is a festival every year here called Kervichot, where the women fast and pray for their husband's long life. They will go the entire day without eating or drinking anything. Then at night they will do pooja (worship) outside next to the moon, take a flour sifter, look at the moon through the flour sifter, then bring it to their husband's face. After this they will eat and drink. Usually the women go to great lengths to make themselves look beautiful. 
Many will go to the beauty parlour the week before and get waxing/threading/mehendi done. The day of the actual festival, this year on the 10th, the women have a day off from work. They will stay at home and continue to beautify themselves and rest. It is also on this day that the women are supposed to have a break from all their work, however, when I asked my friend "if the women don't do the work, then who does?"
she replied that although the women aren't SUPPOSED to do any work, they usually still have to do the cooking and cleaning because the men won't. She did say that some men will help that day, but most women continue to do work. < It was on this day that my sister told me to follow her downstairs to her house. I went inside and she proceeded to tell me to start putting on her gold jewelry, which she has a LOT of. 
(Gold is a sign of wealth and status. Kind of like the American equivalent of diamonds.) She then said that she didn't think she'd get to see my marriage so she wanted to see what I would look like as a bride. 
I really don't know what the obsession with getting us married over here is, but when we get around too many ladies at one time the topic ALWAYS comes up and they ALWAYS decide to dress us up. After putting on ALL her gold as well as the HUGE nose marriage nose ring, she dressed me in her sari and told me how to pose for "my wedding snaps". 
I tried not to laugh as she proceeded to snap away, but she told me I wasn't allowed to smile too much! It was like my first modeling shoot. NOT that I plan on getting married here, BUT if I ever did, this is probably close to what I would look like in national dress. Sorry tried to upload more pictures of mehendi, but they wouldn't upload! I LOVE April's pose in this one.....yes that is my studly room mate senior portrait model extraordinaire!
2 comments:
Beki, you look beautiful!
hey Becks,
You do look kind of cute.
Love you and miss you lots,
Benny
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