Damascus lives the days of Christmas and the New Year
With the heralds of Christmas and the New Year, Damascus usually wears a veil of happy colors and bright lights. Shops and stalls are decorated with Christmas trees, lights of the rainbow colors, and varieties of gifts that attract the elderly before the children. Markets in Damascus witness a surge in activity, unfamiliar during the other days of the year, where bazaars usually swell with commodities of different types and colors. Christians and Moslems, alike, celebrate the occasion in an atmosphere that makes Syria an example of fraternity and religious tolerance.
The Christmas Night When the birthday of Jesus Christ approaches, people in general, and Christian families in particular, start preparing to this happy occasion and to install Christmas trees in special corners of their homes to and decorate them with bright lights, silver and golden ribbons, colored stars and balls, and dummies representing Papa Noel. Some families prepare a mock up of a cave of colored paper in which they put little toys representing Mary the virgin, Joseph and Jesus the infant laid in a basket of hay, with sheep and domestic animals around and the three Magian Wisemen who had seen the star of the East and came to kneel in front of Jesus and offer him their gifts of gold, musk and myrrh. The cave represents the humble place (near Beit Lehem, now under Israeli occupation) where Jesus Christ was born.
On the eve of Christmas, facades and balconies of houses are lit with bright lights. Merry songs of Christmas especially those of the velvet voice of Fairouz are heard every where. At midnight, the time when Jesus was born, bells of Churches and monasteries jingle accompanied by the hymns of prayers “Glory for the Lord in Heavens, peace for people on earth and happiness for all the humanity .
In the night of Christmas children go to sleep dreaming to wake up next morning to find the tree loaded with the gifts Papa Noel. In the day time people visit each other and exchange good wishes. Visits of friends and families continue all the week in a merry atmosphere of happiness while waiting the coming of the new year to prepare banquets and hotels so that they can receive the new year in happy and cheerful moods.
The Christmas Tree: The Christmas tree has many indications, most important of which is the richness of nature where the tree is the symbol of its generosity, since it gives us fruit and wood. Therefore people look at it with special appreciation and esteem decorating it with light bulbs,bells, birds and colored balls. The star that twinkles at the head of the tree stands for the link between the earth (the tree) and the sky which is always studded with bright stars. People of Damascus in the past used to decorate Christmas trees with red apples since apples is the fruit of heaven. Decorations were prepared at home before they started to be manufactured in factories. At the start of the twentieth century small electric light bulbs were used to decorate the trees instead of the small candles. The 20th century also, and in a move to protect natural fir trees, witnessed the appearance of artificial trees. Municipalities and artificial organizations now tend to participate in Christmas celebrations by decorating the trees in main trees as well as in preparing a huge tree in a main square in the city. Papa Noel: There is no standard meaning for Papa Noel. In England he is father Christmas, in the US he is Santa Claus, In Italy he is Papa Natal. It is said that the grand father of Papa Noel is no one but st. Nicholas, That bishop who lived in Asia Minor in the 4th century AD and used to offer gifts for children and to protect harvests. The phenomena of Papa Noel had grown since that day to be a general marl of Christmas. The Noel is a stout man with good features and a long white beard. He wears a red coat and sneeks discreetly into houses to offer gifts to the children and to infuse happiness and merriment in their hearts.
Haifaa Mafalani