Dear MTV, Here’s What Insults Christianity

Lebanon + nurse + halloween + ban

PS: The Cross isn’t sold with this

I didn’t want to address anything related to that nun costume. It was culturally demeaning to even consider that nylon thing as something worthy of a discussion, which the country decided to have over the past few days.

Lebanese Christian victimhood takes front and center once again. Sometimes, the reason for the panic may be fathomable. Other times, such as this time, it’s completely silly to make a fuss out of it. I wasn’t going to say anything until I read this exquisite piece by MTV Lebanon about the outfits (here). I also did a good amount of research to check if the sexy nun outfit wasn’t some slutty Mexican folklore. You never know!

So dear MTV and the many Lebanese Christians who believe in what MTV said, please look at what really insults Christianity.

It’s a bigger insult to Christianity when you put a shroud of holiness around priests and nuns and monks who have done nothing to you in any way whatsoever except belong to the religion you believe in.

It’s a bigger insult to Christianity when you protect those people of the cloak beyond any form of doubt, despite it not making sense, because you believe they are of a higher moral order, because you believe they are above sins when Pope Francis shattered stereotypes by acknowledging that he was a man of sin.

It’s a bigger insult to Christianity to take insult to every single thing that infringes upon anything that is related in any way to the religion especially when the insult doesn’t even touch upon the Holy convictions championed by that religion. What would you have done had the outfit been a slutty virgin Mary? Now that is something I might fathom being upset about – but are we seriously getting insulted by a downright stereotypical outfit of a nun?

It’s an insult to Christianity that we keep going backwards as a society while everyone else goes forward. It’s an insult to Christianity that while the religion, with its new head, tries to find some footings in the 21st century, Lebanese Christians are firmly set in keeping it in the dark ages: what we don’t like even if hating it is way out there, the country doesn’t get. It’s as simple as that.

It’s an insult to my intellect, dear MTV, to assume that a Halloween outfit is of the same insult caliber as the desecration of Churches and Holy monuments in Syria and Egypt. It’s also an insult to my intellect to read a piece written in that impeccably constructed language. Was it translated from Arabic using Google? Anyway, seeing as my intellect resides in the body of a Christian person on paper, I must also consider this as an insult to Christianity because the logic might hold somehow.

Lebanese Christians, I beseech you (always wanted to use that word) to wake up and realize the following: You are entitled to believe in whatever you. You even have the right to take offense when your Holy figures are ridiculed and whatnot. And sometimes I’ll stand with you if the stance was worth it.  But being insulted by a Halloween costume is taking it too far.

MTV, you didn’t handle the priest scandal well. Why are you doing the same mistake again?

Happy Thanksgiving My Fellow Lebanese!

We celebrate Halloween. We celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Why not this?

I personally believe that Thanksgiving would be an awesome addition to our roster of national holidays. Never mind that we have no business in celebrating it but I want to anyway. Shou we2fet 3leih? 

And why not get Canadian thanksgiving too?

So I have received a pumpkin pie recipe from my favorite American. Sadly though, we don’t have the ingredients here. Bummer :/

And doing that turkey thing we see in movies is way too complicated for someone as amateurish as I am when it comes to cooking. But thank you Classic Burger Joint for the concern in bringing the holiday over!

I guess I’ll just go around telling everyone happy thanksgiving and thanking our native people whoever they are for all the blessings on this day. If only our shops agree to do Black Fridays too!

So here it is: HAPPY THANKSGIVING LEBANON! We are working on transferring our independence day to July 4th where we’ll have barbecues, pledge allegiance to the flag and set up awesome firework displays 😀

Lebanese & Halloween

Over the past five years or so, Halloween grew exponentially in popularity among the Lebanese population. Halloween parties started to take place a couple of days in advance with people celebrating the holiday – like – well, like Americans.

Part of what bothers me about this is that most Lebanese nag about losing some of our culture and traditions in the shuffle of globalization. And that is apparent the most when it comes to Halloween. After all, it is not a holiday that is Lebanese. There’s nothing Lebanese about it to be exact. It’s like many of those other things we take in like a sponge: Halloween is cool. Let’s celebrate it.

Back in my days, which are still here since I’m only 21, our version of “Halloween” although different in meaning yet very similar in form, took place on December 3rd. I remember going house to house with my friends and sitting on sofas in the warmth of stoves, waiting as those families tried to know who was behind the mask.

Do any of the people celebrating Halloween today (or celebrated it over the weekend) actually celebrate the “Lebanese” version of that day, which holds some significance by being St. Barbara’s day, a Christian martyr who had to disguise herself to escape the king’s persecution?
I guess not. After all, it’s much “cooler” to celebrate something where getting wasted under a mask than to go all rustic and knock on people’s doors to let them guess who you are…

Call me old-fashioned, but if there’s something I would like to keep “Lebanese,” it’s the day where we wear masks just for the fun of it. There’s no reason for us to copy other people’s holidays just because it has been shoved down our throats in movies, series, pop culture… to the point where it has officially been deemed cool by the masses.

What’s the difference between wearing a Jack Sparrow costume on October 31st and December 3rd, other than the date? A whole cultural identity.