Encourage the Folk Festivals

The Woman's Word

Visitors to the mountain — tourists, emigrants, and citizens — beheld the varieties of folk festivals, which reached the height of their activity last month, when the little village became a gathering of thousands of souls, as though all Lebanon had moved there, until, for all their breadth, its squares, roads, and balconies grew too narrow.

My word will be confirmed by whoever attended the "Festival of Flowers" in Bikfaya, or the "Festival of the Vine" in Zahle, and the other festivals of last September.

In the succession of these occasions, year after year, there is abundant benefit for Lebanon. They are a school for those in charge of the organizing, who learn from trial and error until our festivals keep pace with the like of what we see in the advanced countries. And they are a school for the people itself, who grow familiar with the atmosphere of these folk festivals and take pleasure in it, and so await the return of their seasons to flood them with the joy of meeting and with innocent gladness, on a sound national plane.

In the past we appealed to the government on the necessity of encouraging these folk festivals, so that they might, of their own accord, take the place of the sectarian festivals — the latter feed the spirit of odious fanaticism and divide the ranks of the citizens, and we have paid dearly for that, and are paying still; while the former are a natural field for positive participation, understanding, and love. And if the folk festivals had no virtue but this one, it would suffice!

In the past we said it as a passing word; today its usefulness looms far larger, and so we sincerely call upon those responsible to adopt our humble opinion, for the good of this gentle country, which the sects and factions tear apart, and whose weak point is exploited by those with suspect designs...