Good Friday Mass in Beirut

Arriving at Saint Mary's for Good Friday Mass

In good traditional manner, it rained on Good Friday in Beirut. But this only added to the solemnity of the day that is celebrated here with devotion, passion and great community spirit.

I have already mentioned that Holy Week and Easter is my favorite season of the year (Off to Beirut in time for Easter, 16 April 2011). I haven’t been in Beirut during Passion Week for more than 20 years. I wanted to participate in the traditions that my mom Vicky and I used to enjoy so much.

So it was off to Good Friday Mass at Mom’s parish church, St. Mary’s Orthodox Church of Dormition in Makhoul Street off Hamra. Arriving in time for the 6 p.m. start, the church was already completely packed. Accompanied by my cousin Lillian, we were lucky to eventually get a seat, the mass lasting more than two hours.

The packed church

Jesus' symbolic coffin

St. Mary’s, better known as Saydeh, is the parish church of the Greek Orthodox community in Ras Beirut and currently counts around 400 families. It is one of the 11 parishes that constitute the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Beirut. The present archbishop, His Eminence Metropolitan Elias Audi, was elected by the Holy Synod, to the See of Beirut in 1980. The See of Beirut covers the Lebanese capital area and the town of Souk el-Gharb, the Metropolitan's summer resort.

The Greek Orthodox community is the second largest Christian community in Lebanon and the Greek Orthodox Church of Beirut traces its history back to the year 66 AD when Quartos, one of the 70 disciples, founded the Church of Beirut. 

 

The priest spraying the congregation with blessed rose water

There was no Orthodox church in Ras Beirut before the year 1860. Land to build a church with a cemetery and a school for parish children was donated by the Rbeiz and Bekha’azi families, the largest Orthodox families in Ras Beirut. And it is in fact there that many friends and family members are buried.

Kissing the symbolic shroud at the end of the Good Friday Mass

The Good Friday mass was an occasion for the community to gather and meet. Despite the many tears in the congregation that the mass stirred up, there was also a festive atmosphere. People were going in and out to give their places to others. There were families, children, and a lot of Aunties that reminded me of Mom.

My Good Friday flowers

The ceremony was long, more than two hours, but it was full of symbolism and tradition as you can see from the pictures. And you leave with a feeling of peace and thanksgiving… and blessed flowers that were distributed at the Church gates. I now have these next to my computer.

 

Fairouz sings Good Friday hymns on TV

I was also pleased to catch the Good Friday Mass hymns on TV by Lebanon’s Grande Dame, Fairouz.

Happy Easter!

Off to Beirut in time for Easter

It’s been an iffy week. The weather has been gray, rainy and gloomy in Dubai -- not what I signed up for when I moved here. Also, I had no Internet at home for four days, something we don’t expect anymore. But the sun is trying to shine through. The Internet is working again. And I’m “leaving on a jet plane” to Beirut on Sunday morning, just in time for Easter.

Holy Week and Easter is my favorite season of the year. Spring has started, the garden is blooming, the birds are tweeting more than ever, and there is so much symbolism in commemorating Jesus’ triumphal entry to Jerusalem, the start of Passion Week leading up to the Resurrection and Easter Sunday.

Blessed Palm Sunday crosses & olive tree twigs

I land in Beirut on Palm Sunday, a bit late to witness and take part in the processions and blessing of the palms, but it is something my sister Asma usually celebrates on my behalf. Every year she sends me, from Cannes, the small crosses made of palm leaf or olive tree twigs that have been blessed on the day. Some haven’t survived the journey to Dubai, but those pictured above have been with me, whether at home or at work, for a longtime.

Passion Week was always busy at home. There were eggs to color and the traditional Easter cakes, ma’amoul, to prepare. My mom, Vicky, would order food colorings months in advance for the eggs, besides storing onion peel, beetroot and saffron. We couldn’t eat them during Lent, but used to enjoy them after the egg hunt on Easter morning.

Pistachio, walnut and date ma'moul

Preparing the ma’amoul, small shortbread pastries, filled with dates, walnuts and pistachios, was another Easter ceremony. Because they take so much time to prepare and therefore make large quantities, it is ordinary for friends and neighbors to help one another. Vicky and her friends would go from house-to-house and she would come back with a filled Tupperware or tin after each session. Again, these wouldn’t be eaten until Easter.

Ma'moul molds

Ma’amoul is made with semolina flour, scented with rose or orange blossom water. There are special molds to form the cookies. Ours, which belonged to my paternal grandmother, are well used, but I can’t remember in which box I packed them. The cookies are baked to a light pale yellow and dusted with powdered sugar. Each mold has a distinctive design to show whether the filling is dates, walnuts or pistachios without having to take a bite first. The flat ones are date-filled, the round are walnut, and the longer ones pistachio.

Of course, I always thought Mom’s ma’amoul were the best. We would look at them and take a sniff before closing the lid. They were often stored in Mackintosh Toffee tin boxes.

So these preparations went on through Holy Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then Maundy Thursday, the day of the Last Supper when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and set up the ceremony known as the Eucharist. It is the night on which Jesus was betrayed by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane. Maundy (mandate) comes from the command given by Jesus at the Last Supper that we should love one another.

Good Friday, commemorating Jesus’ crucifixion, was special for Mom and I. It was the one day of the year when we went to Church together for the procession and reenactment of the Crucifixion. When I moved to London, I kept up the tradition and I look forward to going once again in Beirut on Friday.

Fairouz sings Good Friday hymn "Wa Habibi"

Good Friday in Beirut was sad with most restaurants, coffee shops and offices closed. TV and radio aired religious programs. But we looked forward to the televised Good Friday mass in the evening (there wasn’t daytime TV yet!) because the hymns were sung by Lebanon’s Grande Dame, Fairouz. The famous singer chants the Good Friday prayers in a different church each year. I wonder if this is still the case.

The best part of Easter, the egg hunt done and a good breakfast after 40 days of Lent, was Mom sitting by the phone and calling her sister, brothers, family and friends, one by one to great them with “Al Masih kam”, or “Christ has risen.”

It was the crowning of a great week and a tradition I try to keep up too. Do you have any favorite Easter traditions or memories?

I wish a Happy Easter week to all my readers. The next posts will be coming from Beirut.