Photos: Palestinian Traditional Henna Party
Me taken by the beauty of our Palestinian traditions
These are some photos from my cousin Rawan’s traditional Henna party on Sunday, December 16. I can’t tell you how unique that was. Everything was traditional, even the decoration. Everyone came wearing Palestinian traditional dresses. As the guests’ original villages were different, their traditional dresses were different as. I had so much fun comparing their dresses and I reached one conclusion which is that the bride’s dress was certainly the most beautiful.
No modern music was played at all. Women exchanged roles: some played drums, some danced while others sang traditional songs that they orally learned from their mothers and grandmothers. Moreover, the young girls including Sarah, Roba, Amjad and I performed Dabka, the fork dancing of Palestine. We enjoyed every moment!
During the Henna party, a woman took responsibility of painting Henna on the girls’ hands one after another starting with the bride. We all have different shapes of Henna paints on our hands and everyone is proud, showing off hers to the others.
At the end of the Henna party, we served Summaqiya to the guests. Summaqiyya is a traditional kind of food that our grandparents used to serve for guests in their weddings in our original villages and it has become a basic custom in the Palestinian people’s weddings. Some relatives arrived early this morning and cooked a huge amount. It was so delicious that Sarah and I had two big dishes on our own! I think it was made with so much love for Rawan.
My grandmother used to describe to me vividly how their weddings looked like. Today, I felt emotional while recalling my grandmother’s description and glancing some of her memories from the old days as watching the women celebrating. By reviving our traditions, I could feel our grandparents alive again. I hate it when I observe how badly our Palestinian traditions and customs got influenced by TV and modern and western music and culture. Nothing is as good as our precious heritage. Thanks Rawan for bringing us back to the old days, the days that our grandparents used to live peacefully in Beit-Jerja and Deir-Sneid. We shall return and finish the olive harvest that our grandparents had to leave behind assuming that they would return in a matter of two weeks to continue it.
The bride is getting a Henna painting on her hand
Bakhour “incense”
We were here going on a circle and repeating after my aunt while singing traditional songs.
My lovely grandmother was the main singer. She can memorize thousands of traditional songs
Noor, the bride’s sister
Our beautiful bride Rawan is the one that having a red flower sticking in her hair
Me on the right and my cousins, the bride’s sisters, in the Henna Party
Different designs of Palestinian embroidery
That’s me :)
Women wearing traditional dresses and dancing. The woman who’s dancing on the right is my aunt, the bride’s mother.
I performed a Dabka performance while carrying the pottery imitating how Palestinian women before 1948 used to take potteries and go to fill it with water from a well in their village.
My Henna design
My grandmother is singing and playing drums and I am repeating after her
PALESTINE FROM MY EYES 
Pretty women!
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December 18, 2012 at 4:04 pm
My Dear Sister Shahd:
Thank you for sharing this. Puts an actual face on Palestine. One that isn’t, at the moment, covered in horror.
I’ll bet that Grandmother can sing like an angel.
Blessing be upon you.
peace and respect,
Skulz
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December 18, 2012 at 4:30 pm
Nice to see you smile.
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December 18, 2012 at 4:38 pm
thanks for this wonderful information Shahd. Sometimes on the market I look to the painted hands of Arab women with admiration. I can’t get my eyes off. I only paint my nails.
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December 18, 2012 at 7:51 pm
Very beautiful!! Thank you sister for showing us this lovely side of Palestine!
LONG LIVE PALESTINE!
Peace to All!!
-Jeannine
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December 18, 2012 at 8:37 pm
Culture, the intricate fabric of the history of a nation, beautiful to see and hear.
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December 18, 2012 at 11:00 pm
Brilliant and intelligent ladies! Thanks for showing us your heads held high, you are all magnificent!
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December 19, 2012 at 12:25 am
It is wonderful to see that at least for those moments everything was so NORMAL.
Ironicaly while reveering the old ways you were able to share via the very modern way.
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December 19, 2012 at 12:26 am
Mashallah!!! As beautiful as the character Amjad, in the muqawama in Filastin that was brilliantly depicted in Jonathan Bloomfield’s award-winning book, “Palestine,” in which actual history and future predictions are cloaked in fiction.
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December 19, 2012 at 1:29 am
Gracias por compartir esas preciosas fotografías. Viva Palestina Libre !!!!!!!!!!
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December 19, 2012 at 3:33 am
A pesar de masacre que sufre el pueblo palestino, su gente sabe sonreirle a la adversidad, una demostración de su inquebrantable voluntad de ser libres. “Grande Palestina”.
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December 20, 2012 at 11:15 pm
Thankyou for a wonderful post and pictures. Always wondered what a traditional palestinian henna party looked like – meaning without imported customs etc. Keep up the good work!
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December 21, 2012 at 3:21 am
Lovely tradition as it is~!
And it made me wondering of how Summaqiya is.. Would be great if you post the picture or maybe how to cook it :)
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December 21, 2012 at 11:58 am