Applying Hina on hands, feet and arms is an art. Mehndi is an Asian art and custom from ancient age. Mughal introduced this art during 12th century AD. During that era, rich and royal people used hina to decorate themselves. In past, there was no special designing and art of applying hina. Ladies paste it on hands and feet in round shape, moon form. To make it stylish apply small dots around it in middle of hand. This same design was applied on fingers, back hands and feet.
In Asia, special occasions are incomplete without mehndi. Mehndi plays significant role to make all festivals and ceremonies meaningful, enjoyable and more special. There are a lot of changes in traditional mehndi and modern mehndi style. Modern mehndi styles and designs are coming up with glamour and fun in it. Mehdni is being used as ornamented tool on wedding. In Asian culture, marriage ceremony’s first night is dedicated to mehndi and it is called Mehndi Night.
Modern hina is coming up with lot of colors and with glitter that make it prominent. These colors and glitters are also used to make hina matching with bridle dress. When hina get dried, it needs to be washed away. It leaves color on skin. In Asian culture this color signifies the love of bridle’s mother-in-law or husband. It is also a custom to write name of groom on bride’s hand with hina at Mehndi Night. It is considered that if it leaves dark color on hands then it indicates that couple will remain contented in whole life with love. It is also a tradition in Asia that after marriage brides do not work till hina color fades away completely.
It is important on occasions, festival, fasts, and other regional occasions. To make it different and stylish, different names, trends and design styles are adopted. To make hina a predictable trend, way of excitement and fun, there are diverse styles of applications. Even people adopt it as a profession. Now hina is found in Arabic style, Indian style, Classic style, Rajisthani style and many more. Tattoo is also a modern style of making different designs and objects that has been invented by taking influence from mehndi. Hina designs consist of different shape flowers, symbols, pattern, religious symbols etc.
In west, people like to paint their body that is also a substitute of hina. There are different styles to make hina different and unique. These styles are:
Middle East hina style
North African hina style
Indian and Pakistani hina style
Indonesian and south Asian hina style.