Janadriyah Festival celebrates authenticity

Traditional handmade headbands have made a comeback in a big way at the ongoing Janadriyah National Festival for Heritage and Culture, where the bands are selling like hot cakes. Traditional women’s headbands in various colors and adorned with exquisite ornaments have became a fashion trend as women and girls of all ages and nationalities are seen wearing them in the festival premises. As a result, their sales have risen dramatically. Visitor Ebtisam Al-Ruwaily from the Kingdom’s Northern region said the headband is a key part of traditional women’s clothing and has been worn since the olden days. It was usually made of a long black cloth decorated with gold or silver ornaments that women wore as head adornments on special occasions. Um Abdullah from Arar said women used to wear headbands all the time, especially older ladies, The bands were sewn by hand and adorned with beads and gold and silvers coins, and were tied around the head like a bandana. Another Janadriyah visitor, Um Rashid from Qassim, said that traditional headbands had been worn by women in Najd villages to carry water jar or crops on their heads, adding that it was occasionally embroidered with gold coins to be worn at wedding ceremonies. Um Ghazi pointed out that the headbands were worn in the past to hold the hijab or ‘Shailah’ (traditional head covering) used by women all over the Kingdom, and it is believed to relieve headaches. Leading the revival of the traditional headbands in the Janadriyah festival were young girls such as Abeer, Hanan and Rasha, whose heads were adorned with beautiful heritage headbands that expressed their pride to wear a traditional ornament associated with the Saudi culture. One of the girls said that she wore the band because it is easy to wear and that it looks beautiful. Source: Arab News