While Henna has many practical uses as a healing plant, and a way to cool the skin, traditionally the beautiful art of Henna decorating became an art form of beauty and spirituality. For centuries, Henna has been used by many different cultures, and by religions such as Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Pagans, and others, to celebrate rites of passage and to commemorate ceremonies. While varying designs have a different meaning for members of each culture and religion; they all focus on good health, fertility, wisdom, protection and spiritual enlightenment.

The spiritual history of Henna is hard to trace. With centuries of migration and cultural interaction it is difficult to determine where particular traditions began. However there is evidence that the earliest civilizations to have used henna include the Babylonians, Assyrians, Sumerians, Semites, Ugaritics and Canaanites. The Neolithic people in Catal Huyuk, in the 7th millennium BC, used henna to ornament their hands in connection with their fertility goddess. Within the Canaanite (Syrian) legend of Baal and Anath, inscribed on a tablet dating back to 2100 BC, Henna is specifically used as an adornment for a bride or woman’s special occasion. Henna has been associated with the Chinese erotic rituals in their ancient Goddess cultures for at least three thousand years.

The use of Henna in the 4th-5th centuries in the Deccan of western India is clearly illustrated on Bodhisattvas and deities of cave wall murals at Ajanta, and in similar cave paintings in Sri Lanka.
Henna, referred to as Camphire, is also mentioned in the Song of Soloman, a text within the Jewish Talmud, and the Christian Bible. Here Henna is associated with sexual and spiritual love. “My Beloved is unto me as a cluster of Camphire in the vineyards of En-Gedi” Song of Solomon, I, 14. “I am my beloved’s,and his desire is for me. Come, my beloved, Let us go into the open, Let us lodge among the henna shrubs.”Song of Songs 7:11-12

Artifacts and written records dating from the Bronze Age Mediterranean prove that women hennaed their hands in celebration of a springtime ritual sacrifice to secure fertility and blessings for the land and community. These fertility festivals and their henna traditions spread into three different major religions, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. The annual sacrifice to secure the favour of a deity was not simply symbolic. The ritual action managed the domestic herd populations within the ecosystems towards an optimum level of productivity, benefiting both people and landscape.

Henna’s traditional decorating purposes vary from culture to culture. The most popular traditional use is tied closely with weddings and bridal preparation; these designs tend to be the most ornate, covering the most area. Other uses include the celebration of circumcision, pregnancy, birth, el Eid (the end of Ramadan), for good luck and protection from the evil eye and djinn (malignant desert spirits, or “genies”), female camaraderie and beauty. Depending on the culture, men may use it as well as women, usually for more symbolic purposes; masculine designs are generally very basic, simple and small in design.

Throughout time henna has been associated with special celebrations. Betrothals, weddings, the eighth month of pregnancy, the birth, the 40th day after a woman gives birth, naming ceremonies, circumcisions, etc, are all events celebrated with henna. Other religious holidays are also occasions to be hennaed. There are also some healing ceremonies, like the Zar in North Africa, which include its use. A common practice seen in India and in the Islamic world is the pre-wedding tradition of ‘Night of Henna’ parties, like the Sudanese one described earlier.

Using henna for many women in poor countries was an inexpensive way of adorning herself and becoming exotic, to set herself apart from others. To paint ones friends was also very popular and the ritual that went with it drew you closer to them. In the Middle East it is said that Arabs will not present their hand for henna if they are not speaking the truth and it is generally brides who are painted. Henna is known as a symbol of good luck in countries such as Turkey, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Regardless of culture or religion, Henna is a life giving and therapeutic experience for anyone who wants to get in touch with their inner self. It has a history of spirituality, is thought to ward off evil and bring the wearer good luck, is linked with marriage, birth and death and is probably one of the oldest, and most spiritual, art forms known to man.