Arabyola hosts Arabic Henna Tattoos and Stickers Event!

Last Wednesday, I attended the Henna Tattoo and Sticker event hosted by Arabyola. Henna is a temporary dye created from the henna tree. Natural henna stains a reddish-brown color on skin and typically last for about a week. 

                                               
                                            Photo by Arabyola
Henna markers, tattoos
and stencils
   











The use of henna is culturally and religiously significant. Henna is a part of Middle Eastern and Indian culture, and is also used by Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists. In India, Henna is called Mehandi and is prominent in festivals. It’s mainly used for special occasions such as weddings, birthdays, and cultural and religious holidays. 

There were a variety of henna stencils, tattoos, markers, and henna paste that we were able to choose from. I discovered that one of my classmates from my Arabic class, Hannah, knows how to do henna art. She is self-taught and has been practicing henna art for years. It was interesting to learn that her family is also from the United Arab Emirates. For my henna design, she incorporated flowers, which are very common. She also added some vines, dots, and other decorative shapes.

                                         
                                          Hannah doing my henna
Henna design
Arabyola is an Arabic language club at Loyola University Maryland, where students can develop and enhance their knowledge about Arabic language and culture. Dr.Inas Hassan is the founder of Arabyola. Since 2013, she has been the coordinator for the club and fostered a welcoming and encouraging environment to learn Arabic. She currently teaches several Arabic courses here at Loyola including Arabic 101-104 and Arabic Composition & Conversation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Built a Gingerbread House!

Image
I attended another event hosted by the Baking club at Loyola University Maryland and this time, I built and decorated gingerbread house.  The gingerbread house kit came with a mini village of gingerbread buildings. We four gingerbread houses that we could choose to build: Santa’s House, a Candy Shop, a Sweet Shop, and a Chalet. I picked a random one, and it happened to be the Chalet.    Gingerbread Chalet, sprinkles, and gum drops The gingerbread Chalet did give me a few problems once I started building. One of my pieces broke apart, luckily, I was able to fix it by using icing. This gingerbread house was smaller than a typical gingerbread house which made it difficult to decorate. I decided to decorate the walls before putting the roof on. I used red icing for the walls and a lot of sprinkles to create “lights” along the base of the house. Attaching the roof was tricky too. I had to hold one of the roof slabs in place for a few minutes because it kept sliding down. ...
Read more

B'More Greek Grill

Image
A few weeks ago, I noticed a blue food truck located near the humanities building at Loyola University Maryland. I didn’t pay much attention to it until I saw a lot of people with food from the truck. From a distance, the food looked and smelled delicious, so I decided to check out the food truck.  B'More Grill Menu I learned the blue food truck is owned by B’More Greek Grill. Their menu consists of an extensive list of dishes from Greek cuisine. I’ve never had Greek food before, so I was excited to try it.  I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out what to order because of how many food options they offered. I finally decided to order the traditional gyro which consisted of lamb, diced tomatoes and onions, and their homemade tzatziki wrapped in a pita wrap. I ordered a side of fries too. I’ve only had lamb once in my life and that was when I was 13 years old. However, I wanted to have the most authentic experience with the food which is why I didn’t substitute the lamb for...
Read more