Henna Night

Arab and Muslim women display the finest cultural dress they possess when attending special celebrations such as henna nights, weddings, and other group and community gatherings. The significance of attending these celebrations wearing cultural dress surpasses its esthetic meaning and reflects more on the deep connections that women establish with such an attire.  In order to display the social and cultural significance of the Henna day as a major celebration of women’s cultural clothing, AMWRRI Organized a Henna Night at Marquette University in cooperation with the Office of International Education. The event was also partly sponsored by a grant from Wisconsin Humanities Council, WHC.

The bride and the groom for this spectacular Henna Wedding day were two Marquette University students, Alexander Fabrizio, a senior in the College of Arts and Science, and his fiancé Rochelle Christensen. The event was very successful and well-attended. Everyone enjoyed the program, from the moment that they arrived and were seated in a cultural atmosphere listening to the Arabic folk music and songs, until the end of the ceremony, when attendees took pictures with the bride and the groom who were sitting on seats called the “looge” that were placed inside a traditional tent that was assembled inside the hall.

“The Henna Cultural night transported Marquette students, faculty and staff into the customs of an Arab village thousands of miles away. From the bedouin tent to the women dressed in colorful traditional dress the night represented the very best of what an authentic cultural event can do…have someone not from that culture envision themselves in the reality of another people. This transformation occurs in dress, food, music, tradition, dance and a new understanding through the lens of marriage of the oneness of all people who inhabit the earth,” commented Terence Miller, the Director of the Office of International Education who was among the attendees of the Henna Night celebration together with his family.