Middle Eastern Festival

 

        It's Middle Eastern Festival time at the Eastern Orthodox church near our home. We've been going to this festival every year for most of the years we have lived here.

        I have always enjoyed learning about different faiths especially when paired with other ethnic cultures.     

      We like to go when the festival opens and have lunch. They have Lebanese food: kabobs, kafta, kibby and my personal favourite falafel. They used to have a combination plate with a sample of most of the menu that C and I liked to share. Unfortunately they stopped offering it. 

        They play music while people are eating. The lyrics are in a language I don't understand, but the music is very rhythmic and loud. They have two dance groups made up of teenagers and preteens that perform ethnic dances at set times in the tent where people eat. I was surprised the first time I saw it. I was expecting the sinewy belly type kind of dance. What we saw was more athletic with running steps and kicking. Instead of dancing in pairs, dancing was done in a circle or in lines. It looks like fun and some I wish they invited others to dance with them.  It looks so joyful.

        The first few years we attended the festival, I would go on the church tour. It really isn't a tour of the church so much as an explanation of their worship space or sanctuary. They have candles and incense and icons and a much more elaborate alter than any I'm used to. 

        They have a market where they sell things: t shirts, jewelry and items of apparel more ethnic in nature. I enjoy looking at what they have and sometimes I'm tempted to buy something because it looks so pretty, especially some of the t-shirts or apparel items. I remind myself that as nice as it is, this is not my culture and I don't want to appear to be appropriating someone else's culture.

        The bake sale is a whole other matter. I have no problem buying any of the wonderful baked goods they have for sale. I alway pick up some flatbread and a round loaf of  Farani bread. I don't know why, but this is literally the best bread I have ever had. I like to eat it with butter and jam with tea for breakfast. Sometimes I will put pizza sauce on it and cheese for a thick crust pizza. We always pick up some baklava and a few other kinds of cookies. The women of the congregation work hard for weeks to bake all the things that they sell. 

        I feel good supporting this church in a small way so they can practice their faith and pass on their culture to their children.