The Start of Damascene Rose Picking Festival

The Damascene Rose Picking Festival kicked off today in the village of Al-Marah in Damascus countryside, forming a wonderful painting that contained words, songs, poetry and folk dances that highlighted its beauty and expressed its economic, aesthetic and medical importance. The festival outlined how this rose was able to convey the name of Syria to the world after being put in the list of the intangible human heritage of the United Nations Educational Organization UNESCO, Science and Culture in 2019.

People of the village of Al-Marah gathered in the early morning carrying baskets full of the Damascene rose with their perfume and fragrance spreading in an atmosphere that seemed like a painting in which the colors were mixed.

Thanks to the support and follow-up provided by the Syrian Trust for Development in coordination and cooperation with the local community, the rose was able to transcend its borders as a fragrant flower to become a crop,  food and medicine that represented Syria thousands of years ago and manifested itself as a social ritual with its own aesthetic peculiarity stemming from the rich culture and heritage of the Syrian society.

Inas Abdulkareem