Menarche

Your daughter's menarche deserves to be marked.

The most important aspect is to make it hers, follow her lead in what she would like, and here are some suggestions if she needs some ideas.

Choose one or more of these to celebrate your daughter

• A red dinner. Prepare a meal entirely in shades of red: beetroot salad, red wine, pomegranate, red pepper soup. Let the colour itself be the ceremony. 

• A chocolate celebration cake. Bake something decadent and scatter it generously with pomegranate seeds, rubies for your crowning. 

• Something red to wear. Choose a red dress, scarf, earrings, or ribbon. Let these become your special pieces, worn to acknowledge yourself each time you bleed.

• A bunch of red roses

• A letter from yourself

• Decide together how to inform the family, does she want others to know? Maybe a fridge magnet, a badge, a pair of earrings, a signal without words.

• A rose petal bath. Draw yourself a candlelit bath and scatter rose petals across the water. Add essential oils or bath salts, whatever soothes you. Let yourself be held.

• Her favourite chocolate and movie

• A simple gift 

• A simple ceremony inviting other important women in her life (this can be self-led or organised with other girls who have also reached menarche, inviting facilitation if desired)