Kurdistani
Jewish
Henna Traditions
for the Death
of a
Young Woman in the 19th century
copyright Catherine
Cartwright-Jones
c 2003
Kent State University
In Amidiya, Kurdistan, when a
unmarried
young woman died , women hennaed and dressed her body as if preparing
her
for her wedding. This would let her enter the afterlife joyous
and
beautiful, as on her wedding day. They sang her wedding songs, Dim
hamlula
and Narike. In the 19th century, the girl was elaborately
adorned with wedding henna, but in the early 20th century, the women
only
hennaed her little finger.
Her parents hung up her
jewelry and
clothing by the bed where she once slept.
In Sinne, women prepared
henna for
the dead girl, but did not henna her body. They ululated, klililililili,
as
if for a bride, amid rounds of weeping.
Young women were not
buried
in their wedding finery, as grave robbers might plunder their
graves
and steal their wedding jewelry.
References:
The Jews of Kurdistan
Erich Brauer,
completed
and edited by Raphael Patai
Wayne State University
Press,
Detroit, 1993
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