The news agency, Agence France-Presse, reports on the so called "tabbouleh hommus" war, which is amusing readers in Lebanon. The report can be read on the Full Story page.

On a serious note it talks about pending legislation in Lebanon concerning the protection of geographical appelation rights for products belonging to particular geographical areas. What about the famous Ehden Kibbeh !
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We reproduce on the Full Story page an article from the Lebanese website, Ya Liban, on the poet Khalil Gibran (1883-1931) and which says his poems, especially, Pity the Nation, and My Countrymen, are as relevant today as when they were written.


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In the early 19th Century, circa 1810's, the English traveler and some would say eccentric, Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope (1776-1839), visited Ehden as part of her travels in the Levant. After her death in 1839, her doctor, Charles Meryon, wrote her memoirs, and in Volume III of, Travels of Lady Hester Stanhope, Forming the Completion of Her Memoirs, recounts her visit to Ehden.

The passage concerning her visit can be read on the Full Story page.
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Our new Australian friend Ralph Hawkins has sent us a Christmas story, which combines the memories of two Australian soldiers, one being a comrade of his father, who were stationed in Lebanon at the time of Christmas, 1941.

It shows to our thinking the sprit of Christmas and the ingenuity and kindness of a particular zghartawien man, which continues today.

As this may be the last time we post in the News Digest before Christmas we take the opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas and New Year.

Zgharta.com

The photo is of the nativity star at the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem.

To read the Christmas story click on the Full Story tab.
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Our friend Francois Yammine tells us that you can listen online to Christmas Carols sung by Fairuz at http://www.marmarita.com/christmas.htm

In the New Year we hope to bring online zgharta.com own music channel.
 

Caritas Zgharta has provided Christmas trees in the Ehden Zgharta parish churches of Saint Maroun, Saydet Zgharta, Saint Joseph and Saint John’s Cathedral. Under each tree there are found numbered Christmas cards where a child in need has asked for a gift. The idea is that you provide the gift to give them a happy Christmas.

For more information phone Caritas Zgharta on 06 66 77 10

Caritas Zgharta is one of the thirty-six Caritas branches of Caritas Lebanon.

To read more about Caritas click on the Full Story tab.
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The Maronite Church at this time of year celebrates the Season of Announcement.

There are six seasons in the Maronite liturgical calendar: Announcement; Epiphany; Lent; Resurrection; Pentecost; and Holy Cross.

The Maronite Church follows a different Liturgical Calendar than the Latin Church. "Advent" in the Maronite Church is called "Season of Announcement."

To read the complete article click on the Full Story tab.
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Today is World Aids Day.

World Aids Day is commemorated around the world on 1 December. It celebrates progress made in the battle against the epidemic - and brings into focus remaining challenges.

In Lebanon the first officially discovered case of Aids was in 1984 and it is now estimated that there are currently 2,500 HIV sufferers. Official figures for those in treatment programmes are put at 697.

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, of the reported cases some 48 percent are linked to travel and migration to endemic areas with the remaining cases being of domestic origin. The most frequent mode of transmission is sexual (69.8% of all cases, namely heterosexual: 52.8% of all cases) .The majority of sufferers, age wise, are within the 30-44 years old age group with a ratio of men/women of 3.8/1. The increasing number of women infected is through mainly heterosexual sex.

The date 22nd November 1989 will always remain a particular poignant one in the collective memory of Zgharta Zawie.

President René Mouawad,on that day,while returning from the Lebanese Independence Day celebrations in Beirut, was assassinated. Of those accompanying him, seven, all from Zgharta Zawie, were killed.

Those killed with the President were:

George Khouand
Assad Anwar Mouawad
René Kadou Mouawad
Yacoub Sakkal Mouawad
Yousef Antoun Mouawad
Sayed Elias Moura
Joseph Ramia

Mass will be held at Saint John’s Cathedral, Zgharta on Sunday 28th November at 11am in memory of the late President and those who died with him.

On Monday 22nd November 2004 will see Lebanon celebrating its 61st Independence Day.

The day was adopted following the events of sixty-one years ago when the Lebanese president, prime minister, and other cabinet members were released from detention on the 22 November 1943.Ever since then, this day has been celebrated as Independence Day and it is a public holiday.

The photo shows Beirut's Martyrs' Square during celebrations marking the release by the French of those who were held in Rashayya on 22 November 1943.

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The Lebanese are known throughout the world as businessmen par excellence. Antoine Joseph Yammine, who is expanding the family business, exemplifies this spirit. He says he is putting to practical use the skills, which his Degree in Business Administration [Lebanese University] gave him plus his inherited Lebanese flair for business.

His father, Joseph, opened his first store in 1985 in Zgharta which Antoine re-launched in October 2004 as “Supermarché Joesph Yammine”.

They have a second store in Tripoli El Mina called “Shoppies”, which was opened in 2001.

The photo is that of Antoine’s parents, Joseph and Chmounie.

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Zgharta.com introduces “Networking Plus” to help members of the Zghartawien community, wherever they are, to find/fill jobs or business opportunities.

To read more about “Networking Plus” click on the Full Story tab.
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The working drafts of the Maronite Synod texts can be found online at its website http://www.maronitesynod.org

The texts are in Arabic and English.

We are very pleased to report that Rodrigue Dahdah, co founder of zgharta.com, has received a letter of thanks and appreciation from the Mexican Ambassador in Beirut . The letter follows Rodrigue's help in bringing the Eblen Macari Trio to Ehden this summer.

To read the Ambassador's letter click on the PDF link

 

To today is the Feast of All Saints, which is a public holiday in Lebanon. All Saints Day is a universal Christian Feast that honours and remembers all Christian saints, known and unknown. The Eastern churches celebrate the Feast on the first Sunday after Pentecost.

Its origin lies in the early beginnings of the church when there were common commemorations of martyrs who died in groups or whose names were unknown. These were held on various days in different parts of the Church and over time these celebrations came to include not only the martyrs but also all saints. All Saints' Day is first mentioned in the fourth century to honour Christian martyrs. In the early 600's AD, Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon to the Virgin Mary and to Martyrs thus creating a holiday with the same venue. For several hundred years, All Saints' Day was celebrated on May 13, the day of the Pantheon dedication. In 835 AD, Pope Gregory IV changed the date to 1st November.

At the end of the second session of the Maronite Synod on Wednesday Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, head of the Maronite Church, declared that “Lebanon is the true emblem of true Maronism” and that "For the Maronites, Lebanon remains like Jerusalem to the Christians, Rome to the Catholics and Mecca to the Muslims". This latter statement has been picked up by sub editors in the Lebanese media for an attention-seeking headline, which we plead guilty to!

Many of the issues addressed by the Synod have resonance in the Zghartawien community both in Lebanon and overseas.

The photo is that of the Patriarch.

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It has been reported that the Maronite Patriarchal Synod having examined the issue of the Maronite Diaspora, has declared that the "tragedy of emigration" has turned into a "blessing" for the Maronite church and the community.

The Synod praises the success of the Maronite Diaspora in preserving their identity, establishing missions and parishes wherever they went and "becoming prominent citizens" in their countries of expatriation, mainly America, Australia, Europe, Arab countries and South Africa.

To read the full article click on the Full Story tab.
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Today is the Feast day of Saints Sarkis and Bakhous also known as Sergius and Bacchus. Their feast day is celebrated widely in Maronite and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Throughout the ages the Saints have been venerated. They became patron saints and protectors of the Eastern Roman army, and numerous Eastern sanctuaries and churches were later dedicated to them. A liturgical service for the Saints is attributed to Pope St. Gelasius I (492-496). Christian Arabians regard Sarkis as their patron saint and protector in the desert The Feast day of the Saints is closely associated with the Battle of Naupactus on 7 October 1571, where there was major naval victory over the Turkish fleet at the entrance of the Gulf of Naupactus [Italian Lepanto; Modern Greek Epakto]

The picture on the right is of the Icon of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, and St. Justina, whose feast day is also celebrated today, painted by the leading Cretan painter Michael Damaskenos (1535-1592/3). He was commissioned to undertake the work to commemorate the naval victory.

We send our best wishes to all who are celebrating today their Saint's day.

For those who are "local"[query what is local on the world wide web]tune into LBCI on Saturday 4th September at 10am Zgharta time and hear the interveiw with Robert Frangieh :

LBC SAT at 8:05 GMT
LBC EUROPE at 10:05 GMT
LBC AUSTRALIA at 11:00 Sydney Time
LBC AMERICA at 11:30 Eastern Time

He talks amongst other things about the role of the internet in bringing communities together, the forthcoming concert by the Eblen Macari Trio in Ehden and,sorry folks,you guess it, about zgharta.com!

On Thursday, 2nd September, an article appeared in the Lebanese newspaper Al Anwar, written by their journalist Robert Frangieh, concerning how it came about that the Eblen Macari Trio is performing in Ehden on Saturday 18th September.

The article explains that Eblen, the leader of the Trio, is the grandson of Zgharta benefactor Kabalan Macari (1886 –1963),who while surfing the net found zgharta.com and read there an article about his grandfather. That he made contact with Rodrigue Dahdah, co founder of zgharta .com, and expressed the wish to him to perform with his Trio in the birthplace of his grandfather. The article continues saying that, whereupon Rodrigue approached Mrs Rima Frangieh, The President of the Ehden Festival, with a view of having the Trio perform in Ehden. Resulting in an invitation to the Trio to appear in Ehden.

The article highlights that the catch phrase of zgharta.com “where we get together” is true. It demonstrates how the site can and does act as the conduit between those living out of and in Lebanon.

The published article [Arabic] can be read by the following PDF link.
http://www.zgharta.com/logo/anwar_trio.pdf

Translating the Arabic language into English and vice versa is no easy task.

There are many reasons for this. There are no similarities between the Arabic and English writing systems, the way Arabic words are pronounced and the grammatical structure of both languages.

The Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters as oppose to 26 in the Western [Roman] alphabet and does not contain a “P” sounding letter, hence Baris for Paris. Also there are only a few shared consonants between the languages and indeed some Arabic consonants do not exist in English. There are also two sounds that do not obviously correspond to any letter in the Western alphabet.

[Part of an occasional series of articles on cultural and social issues]

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Today zgharta.com passed another milestone in its six years existence.

As part of a continuing programme to reach out to the many thousands of Zghartawiens worldwide zgharta.com has launched its own interactive chat room.

Antoine Dahdah, co founder of zgharta.com says, “ We are the first domestic Lebanese community site to provide to the Zgharta Zawie community, free of charge, the ability to chat live to other members wherever they are. We believe that the Internet is ideal to keep communities in touch with each other and the chat system, called Zgharta Chat, is a means to that end”.

Members who log onto the site are able to see who is online at the same time and chat to them.

The term “Chat” is a feature offered by many Web sites that allows participants to “chat” by typing messages, which are displayed instantly on the screens of other participants who are using the chat room. Chatting is one of the most popular uses of the Internet and is cheaper than phone calls.

Today the people of Zgharta celebrate the Feast of the Assumption at the Church of Saydet Zgharta.

The word Saydet meaning “Our Lady” comes from the Arabic translation of Madonna [which itself comes from the old Italian phrase “My Lady”] as “es Saydeh”. The feast commemorates two events - the departure of Mary from this life and the assumption of her body into heaven.

With the establishment of Zgharta in the 16th century its inhabitants honoured the Virgin Mary by building a church in her name. The church was enlarged in 1607, 1651 and finally as it now stands in 1761.

On Thursday Antoine and Rodrigue Dahdah, the founders of zgharta.com, held a presentation of zgharta.com for Mr Joseph Maarawi, the President of the Zgharta Ehden Municipal Council who was accompanied by Antoine Yousuf Dahdah of the Council and Father Hanna Makhlouf.