Lebanese Food Festival (Rituals culture blog)

I went to the Lebanese Food Festival at Saint Elias Maronite Catholic Church today (4/10). It was really cool, even though I ended up going by myself which normally makes me a little nervous. I actually saw a girl that I work with there; she goes to the church and was involved in the festival, she had danced on stage earlier in the day but that was before I got there. It was really neat seeing her there because before today I really knew nothing about her, and now I know that she is half Lebanese and knows how to belly dance!
I also walked through the Heritage Room which had a lot of historical facts about the church and had old things from the church to look at; like the hands from the original church tower clock.

I also walked through the silent auction and was a little disappointed that there was not more for sale that was traditional Lebanese art. After I finished learning about the church and looking around at the items in the auction, I went into the food room. There were so many people and so many things to eat. I ended up just getting a dessert called walnut mamoul, which was amazing; it was made from cream of wheat, sugar, flour, walnuts, and butter.

I did not find this experience that different from my own experience with church gatherings, except for the types of things that were going on. Growing up, my church would have things similar to this festival but we had homemade "comfort food" and there was no dancing, just socializing. So the main difference from my own culture seemed to be the type of food and entertainment. I did learn that the type of dancing they do is belly dancing, but not the provocative dance you think of when you hear that term (their bodies are covered). I also noticed that a lot of the food they served was similar to the food served at the Greek Food Festival.
I did not really have any preconceived notions or stereotypes to be dispelled. I was a participant observer at this event.