It is currently wedding season back home in India and my social media has been flooded with pictures of mehendi, an essential part of any Indian wedding. Mehendi is an art form, which uses henna to create intricate patterns on the hands and feet of a bride. The designs are meant to symbolise blessings, happiness, and love, while including elements of Indian culture, like peacocks and bindus. The designs are always beautiful and can take hours to come out just right. The colour of the henna once it dries is meant to signify how happy the bride will be in her marriage. The thing that fascinates me about mehendi is that it shows just how intertwined design is with culture as something as simple as patterns can be so meaningful.
