Christmas in Damascus

merry christmas dear reader . . .

1. I went to a big 'tree lighting' thing in the neighborhood of Kassa (drop the "K" and you can pronounce it correctly). The picture is from that night. They 'lit' the tree and it was fairly unimpressive but the Syrians had their mobile camera phones pointed at the sky to capture it. I also saw several veiled muslim women milling around and trying to get into the holiday spirit.

2. A quick story I heard from a friend: These guys have been lining the streets selling superlame blinking Santa hats. Evidently, a group of kids were making fun of this guy for selling Christmas stuff and being Muslim by greeting him with the normal 'salam alaikum' . . . this time drenched in irony. His reply, however, is better . . . saying (in english) "F**k You" . . . . . ah the holidays warm my heart.

3. I'm going to a Christmas Party tonight and after that Midnight Mass - which most likely starts on Arab time . . . 1 AM.

4. Finally, I want to wish you all a very merry christmas from Syria . . . . more posts to come.