Henna night

What it is

Henna is a deciduous tree of hot regions; its leaves are harvested twice a year, dried and ground, and women above all use the paste to adorn their hair, fingertips, hands and feet¹. Henna stands for joy at births, weddings and other celebrations, and its application is often accompanied by chants, songs, proverbs and poems². The knowledge is passed on mainly within the family by watching and taking part³.

The henna night is part of the wedding: according to La Vie éco, the bride’s last night in her parents’ house, before she moved to the groom’s, was called mbita; she had henna put on her hands and feet⁴. At a wedding in 2006 that the magazine followed, the henna celebration took place on the eve of the engagement party at the bride’s house, accompanied by dqayqiya music and with a dinner⁵.

Where it comes from

The henna shrub (Lawsonia inermis) comes from southern Iran and Mesopotamia and was already known in ancient Egypt; it needs a long hot season and irrigation⁶. In Morocco, according to the Encyclopédie berbère, it is grown around Azemmour and in the Doukkala, in the Tafilalet, in the Souss and in the Draa valley⁷.

History

In 1914 Edward Westermarck described how the bride in Fez was purified before the wedding with water and with henna⁸. After the bath she sat behind a curtain, surrounded by unmarried girls of the family, and after dinner a henna painter drew a pattern reserved for brides alone: dots above the wrists and on the fingers, the backs of the hands partly and the palms entirely covered, and the feet likewise⁹. The next evening she was painted again, while the relatives celebrated and women musicians played until morning¹⁰.

Afterwards the negagef, the bride’s attendants, dressed the bride in Fez, sat her on a low table and carried her through the house, singing and dancing¹¹. In Tangier a woman musician mixed the henna with water while singing, and a woman who had been married only once, and to a man who had not been married before, applied it to the bride’s hands and feet¹².

What it is made of

For the paste, the dried leaves are ground; the ingredients and methods vary according to purpose and country¹³. The powder is mixed with water into a paste; with mordants such as alum, henna also dyes leather, wool and silk¹⁴. A description from Tangier quoted by Westermarck mentions finely sieved powder, stirred with hot water into a paste and left on the skin under cloths for a few hours¹⁵. Today’s henna painters fix the colour with a mixture of lemon, garlic, tea grains and sugar, which they apply with cotton wool, and dry the henna over a brazier with incense, oud or alum¹⁶.

How it is made

The hennaya, in Harrell the woman who specialises in applying henna as body adornment¹⁷, traditionally applies the paste with a small stick, a job of about two hours; to save time, some now use a syringe¹⁸. The patterns of Marrakesh and Fez, with fine lines and small striped squares and rectangles, those of Marrakesh also with chequerboard patterns, are regarded as the model¹⁹. The khaliji style, adopted from the Middle East, by contrast shows flowers and rounded, lighter shapes²⁰.

When

According to the Encyclopédie berbère, the wedding is the most important occasion: the bride has the paste applied to her hands and feet, the rest goes to the bridesmaids and the women of the house, and the groom’s hands are dyed too²¹. Henna accompanies many turning points in a woman’s life: puberty, the wedding, the seventh month of pregnancy and the birth of her children²². Before the Feast of the Sacrifice, women paint their hands and often their feet as well²³.

How to recognise it

In the past the bride had henna on her palms, the backs of her hands and the soles of her feet; today many brides have just one finger painted with very fine patterns, while others, above all working-class families, keep to the old custom²⁴. The fixed colour ranges from orange to brown²⁵.