The Palestinian Folk Costume Show

* At the beginning of last month, the wives of the international officials of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, in conjunction with the “Women's Relief Association,” held a splendid affair in the UNESCO building in Beirut, at which were displayed the Palestinian folk costumes that go back hundreds of years...

The lovely young girls paraded with lightness and grace, robed in these exquisite costumes — brought specially for the purpose from the Palestine Museum in Jerusalem — dazzling every eye in a gathering composed largely of foreigners, officials of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and others.

The affair was held under the patronage of His Excellency the Minister of Education, and was opened by Mrs. Salwa Dimashqiya al-Said with a brief address in which she set out the purpose of the occasion: its proceeds will go toward the treatment of tuberculosis sufferers among the Palestinian refugees... Her address was translated into English and then into French.

Among the things Mrs. Salwa al-Said said:

Many people ask whether these costumes are the very same costumes that were current in the age of the Bible; and though that is possible, there is no conclusive proof of it. In the tombs of ancient Egypt, drawings have been found of persons wearing the Syrian dress current in that age, but it bears no comparison with the present costumes; nor is there any way of comparing the dress of the Roman era with the Palestinian folk dress of today. It is believed that Byzantine civilization had the greatest influence on these costumes, especially the women's; for at the dawn of the Christian era, the Near East looked to Byzantine civilization for inspiration and culture. Thus the form of the costumes often resembles the dress of the peasants of Greece and the Balkan lands, particularly in the embroidery patterns. As for Bedouin dress, we are perhaps right in saying that the costumes known among the Bedouin were inspired by the desert and its harsh necessities.