The 2nd Sydnaya Tourism Festival

The city of Sednaya is famous for its beautiful nature and archaeological, historical and religious sites, including the monastery of Our Lady of Sednaya, the Monastery of St. George, the Monastery of St. Thomas, the Monastery of the Cherubim and a number of historical churches as well as many distinguished tourist buildings.

A few days ago Sydnaya witnessed the launching of the 2nd Sydnaya Tourism Festival which was held by the Ministry of Tourism and the province of Damascus countryside. The opening was attended by Secretary of the Damascus Branch of the Baath Arab Socialist Party Radwan Mustafa and a number of members of the People’s Assembly.

It is worth mentioning that the first edition of the Sednaya Festival was held in 2016, while the second session started this year on August 22 and lasted for three days with a number of sports, social, economic and cultural artistic activities presented by a number of Syrian and Lebanese artists.

People in Sydnaya stressed the importance of the festival which represents “love and peace”. Maria Hilal and Georgette Rosia expressed their joy in the atmosphere of the festival, which is a confirmation of the return of Syria as it was the most beautiful and safe country.

In remarks to SANA, Dr. Abdulla Saadeh, Chairman of Sydnaya City Council, pointed out the importance of holding the festival in terms of attracting tourists and visitors to Sednaya after the return of security and safety to Syria.

The participants in the festival start the activities with visiting the monastery of Our Lady of Sednaya and Andrei Al-Akhras School where there is a shopping festival a “Made in Syria” exhibition of traditional crafts, then they move to Hassan Siriya school where some of the famous dishes in Sednaya were introduced .The courtyard of this school witnessed all the artistic concerts.

These concerts include artistic and cultural events where the Syrian voluntary team “Basmat  Shabab ” presented many national songs by  the choir and band. A documentary film was shown about the history and civilization of the town. The Lebanese poet Nizar Francis also presented many poems through which he expressed his happiness with the return of festivals and tourist events to Syria’s beloved land.

 The activities of the last day of the festival included performances of Zajal Ensemble(rhetorical poetry) performed by poets “Samir Hilal, Riyad Saadeh, Shadi Moussa and George Kubba” , and a concert featuring artists Walid Sarkis, Mohamed Iskandar, Nancy Zaabalawi and Sommer Saleh  where they presented  their most  known and beautiful  national songs.

Minister of Tourism Mohammad Rami Radwan Martini said that the festival” lights a new candle for the 2019 summer season in Sednaya”.

M.Wassouf