Society News

Easter

.. With the coming of April each year, the glad tidings of "Glorious Easter" appear: the shop windows are decked out with eggs, in all their colors and sizes, and the merchants are in a race to display the attractive gifts traditionally offered in this season...

And with Easter the children renew their clothes and their shoes, and the girls braid their combed tresses with silk ribbons, and eyes dance for the return of spring and for the escape from winter and its cold.

And many sweet things come to us with April, with Easter of every year, and with the roses and the sweet herbs — chief among them the religious celebrations which the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts has been accustomed to hold annually. This year they were held in the theater of the UNESCO Palace, where the ensemble presented Beethoven's "Solemn Mass," conducted and directed by Mr. Alexis Boutros.

Whoever observes these musical festivals with which this singular young man favors us from one season to the next cannot fail to notice the mighty effort Mr. Alexis Boutros expends to produce these musical and vocal masterpieces, despite the slenderness of the material and moral means under which the Academy labors: no permanent philharmonic orchestra, no school choir — nothing, indeed, save enthusiastic amateurs, and musicians whom Mr. Boutros musters with difficulty from here and there — a hardship surmounted only by stubborn faith...

And it was thanks to the satisfying results the concerts have given in years past that the public's confidence in them has grown strong, so that attendance at them has become wide — which is truly encouraging.

A great word of appreciation we whisper in the ear of Alexis Boutros and his helpers, for their services and their mighty endeavors on behalf of art and music in Lebanon — God keep you!

• The Young Women's Christian Association issued invitations, for Wednesday, April 27, to a celebration held at the Capitol Hotel on the occasion of World Membership Day and the passing of one hundred years since its founding.

The party was under the patronage of the First Lady of Lebanon, Mrs. Zalfa Chamoun, and was distinguished by simplicity, taste, and order.

Amman rejoiced and exulted, and put on its loveliest adornments, on the 19th of last April, on the occasion of the wedding of its young Majesty to the Emira Dina Abdul Hamid.

The wedding ceremony took place at Raghadan Palace in the presence of the Queen Mother, King Faisal II, and the members of the royal family.

Queen Dina, in her white gown embroidered with threads of silver, appeared at the most radiant and splendid that brides can be. And the crowds massed along the two sides of the road leading to the palace cheered long for the lives of the two sovereigns..

The bride's dress, which was designed by the house of Schuberth in Italy, had a train three meters long, carried by twelve maids of honor in their white dresses, with bouquets of carnations in their hands — while the Queen's bouquet of flowers was of rare white lilies. On her head was the royal crown set with diamonds, on her breast the Order of the Renaissance, and on her finger a ring adorned with a matchless brilliant.

When Her Majesty reached the middle of the great hall, the King came toward her and took her hand, and they mounted the staircase to the throne room, while the Queen Mother began scattering over them and over those around them gold pieces the size of half an Ottoman lira, bearing on one face the royal crown and on the other face the two letters "H" and "D," the first letters of the names of the two sovereigns. And when they reached the throne room they began receiving the congratulations of the guests.

At ten o'clock at night the King and Queen went down to the dining hall to attend the supper, and in the middle of the table stood the wedding cake, two meters in height. After supper the royal pair left Raghadan Palace for Basman Palace to attend the evening party, enlivened by the musician Farid al-Atrash, which lasted until two o'clock in the morning; and fireworks kept rising from before the royal palaces, bearing the people's greetings and congratulations.

So the family of "The Woman's Voice" joins its voice to the voices raised in prayer and supplication for the happiness of the two young sovereigns and for the prosperity of the brotherly Jordanian people in the new era...

Four glasses of champagne, and four smiles.. at the betrothal of Miss Angélique Ghor to the young engineer Antoine Kazan.

The betrothal took place on the evening of the fourteenth of last April at a simple family gathering. The charming fiancée looked elegant in her dress of blue linen. She is still a student at the American College of Beirut. To the betrothed pair, the warmest congratulations and good wishes of the family of The Woman's Voice.

The elections for the members of the board of directors of the Lebanese Red Cross were held on March 26 last — and the meeting was presided over by the vice-president, Mrs. Fayza al-Solh.

Twelve ladies stood for membership, of whom ten won. They are Mesdames: Hanina Torsha, Najla Kfoury, Amina Arslan, Ni'mat Qaranful, Dr. Saniya Habboub, Marie Siryani, Salma Beyhum Ghazzawi, Sami Philippe Chedid, Alexandra Issa al-Khoury, Renée Arman.

And while we are speaking of the activity of the Lebanese Red Cross: on April 22 the president of its central committee, Mrs. de Freige, invited the association to a press conference at her home, in the course of which she spoke of the works of this institution and of the projects it had been able to accomplish during the past year; then she spoke at length about Red Cross Week, which will open at the Capitol Cinema on May 2 under the patronage and in the presence of His Excellency President Chamoun, in honor of the founder of the Red Cross in the world, Mr. Henri Dunant.

• The troops of Munjidat (Helpers) attached to the Young Women's Christian Association held their annual conference during the spring holiday at the English High School in Brummana. Thirty-seven Helpers and seven leaders took part in the conference, working together with diligence and devotion to study and develop the theme of the conference: "My Duties as a Good Citizen." The girls, whose ages ranged between twelve and fifteen, gave proof of an activity of thought praiseworthy in ones of their age. And we hope that the idea of the conference will spread, by way of these girls, through the six schools to which they belong in Beirut and Tripoli.

• Mrs. Rosalie Joseph Khuza'i has been blessed with a son, whom they have named "Charbel" — the third among his brothers. Mr. and Mrs. Khuza'i are among the notables of the Lebanese colony in Kumasi (the Gold Coast). "The Woman's Voice" wishes little "Charbel" and his brothers long life and excellent health in the shelter of his parents.

Likewise there has been formed in Lebanon a league of educated young people whose aim is to keep watch over everything that injures Lebanon's reputation as a tourist land. The Commissariat of Tourism and Summering has recognized it, and numerous meetings have taken place between the members of the league and the Commissioner General of Tourism, following which it was decided to form a governing body for the league, composed of the following ladies and gentlemen: Anna Tabet, May Fayyad, Carmen Tayyar, May Yaacoub, Marie Hajj Chahine, Carmen Hayek, Sami Husami, Victor Mandaq, Edmond Hitti, Abdul Rahman Daouk, Georges Khalifeh, Michel Samman, Ernest Karam, Radwan Khatib, Georges Abou Baghi, Abbas Hamiyeh, Raymond Chehab, Joe Saba, Antoine Kazan, Adel Ardati, Hikmat al-Asaad, Antoine Tayyar, Habib Tayyar, Hikmat Khodr.

We wish the league every success, and we ask the public to ease its task as far as possible.

• The Committee for Emigrants, presided over by Mrs. Hanina Torsha, is one of the committees of the League of Women's Organizations. Its aim is to make contact with the emigrants and awaken their longing to return to the homeland or to visit it, to become acquainted with its monuments, to enjoy its natural beauty, and to offer them every possible assistance during their stay in it — a free patriotic service, and a desire to know those who are the best ambassadors of this dear homeland.

The committee has kept up the succession of its meetings and its activity toward achieving the goal it has set before itself. It has sent one appeal to the emigrants and another to the consuls and ambassadors of Lebanon in all countries, and it has been in contact with the president of the Syrian-Lebanese federations in America. These contacts have had a happy effect among the emigrants, for we have received numerous letters from individuals, from groups, and from the ambassadors of Lebanon, who have promised to deliver our message and to help us with useful contacts. We have also formed branches of this committee in Zahle, Tripoli, Sidon, and Aley.

There passed from the world of the Lebanese woman, on the evening of Wednesday, April 27 last, a noble face to which eyes and hearts had long turned in reverence and esteem — the face of Mrs. Lodie Sursock, widow of the late President Emile Eddé.

All the people knew her as a model of humility and humanity, and a model of the virtuous lady, as wife and as mother, ever laboring in silence for fruitful good works. The most important thing accomplished at her generous hands was the project of Lebanese handwork, the "Artisanat" — that project which has never ceased to be the greatest encourager of the working hands in our far-off villages, and the road to the flourishing of our national industry.

The departed bore the Order of Merit from His Holiness the Pope, and the Order of the Cedar in the rank of Commander, bestowed upon her by His Excellency President Chamoun in recognition of her efforts and her great services.

The remains of the departed were accompanied to her last resting place by throngs from the Lebanese bodies, official and civil, in the utmost grief and pain.

So the magazine "The Woman's Voice," which sees in the loss of Mrs. Lodie Sursock Eddé a great loss for woman in Lebanon, turns with its sympathies to her two sons, Messrs. Raymond and Pierre, and to her stricken daughter, asking for the great departed lady mercy, and for their hearts patience and fair consolation.

• Lebanon lost last month the late Mr. Sarhan Shahfa, husband of the tireless campaigner Mrs. Rose Shahfa. The whole family is bereaved, and especially his son Dr. William Shahfa, who is at present on a visit to Santiago — Chile.

"The Woman's Voice" offers to the honorable Shahfa family its due condolences, and prays for the departed mercy and the breadth of Paradise.

● The Child Nursery Society in Zahle, presided over by Mrs. Emily Nasrallah, distributed to its hundred and thirty children gifts of toys, powdered milk, eggs, and sweets, on the occasion of glorious Easter, so that these children should not feel themselves of less account, or less looked after, than the children of the rich.

And this week the society is preparing to receive more than twenty new orphan girls, in addition to the hundred and thirty previously enrolled.

● The Lebanese Women's League convened on the fourth of April — at the home of the president, Mrs. Hanina Torsha. The first purpose of the meeting was the election of four new members in place of those whose term of service had ended — and there won by acclamation each of the ladies: Nazik Sarkis, the wife of Adel al-Solh, the wife of Turki Said, and the wife of Fernand Arsanios.

Then the secretary, Mrs. Nazik Sarkis, read the financial report of the magazine "The Woman's Voice," and a discussion took place on how to attend to strengthening its circulation.

● The cultural committee of the King Saud Cell issued invitations during the past month to a lecture delivered by Mrs. Salwa Mahmasani Moumina on the subject: "The Influence of the Prophet's Wives in Islam." The gracious lecturer expounded in her engaging style, and gave the subject its full due of study, with the tact and breadth of learning for which she is known.