The Arab world celebrates Christmas 2012, in its own distinct way.
On Christmas Day, we remind ourselves that the Arab Middle East is the birthplace of Christianity and home to the world’s most ancient Christian denominations. Here’s a scan of Christmas around the Middle East, as marked by the minority Christian Arab communities distributed around the region to varying degrees of concentration, from Lebanon to Egypt and even some of the Gulf states. Christmas is widely celebrated or at least commemorated by many of the region’s Muslims too, reflecting the global trend by an increasing number of non-Christians to partake in the holidays.
Christmas is observed in some Middle Eastern countries, by local peoples as well as by expatriates. How do these some 10 million Christian ‘Arabs’ living in the Middle East mark Christmas?
On the eve of Christmas, Turkey is taken, while on the day itself, usually rice with lamb is the feast food. Again, even with food, many Arab families have adopted traditional western holiday customs in combination with Middle Eastern traditions. A curious combination of indigenous habit with Western practice preside.
The Christmas feast can consist of chicken, rice and Kubbeh- made of crushed and cooked wheat - or burghul mixed with onion, meat, salt and pepper. Mughly, a pudding topped with crushed almonds and walnuts, is prepared whenever a child is born in the family during the Christmas season. It is offered to the family members and also to the people who visit the newborn.
