Festival offers Katara visitors authentic Palestinian heritage

Doha: With products coming from different towns and villages in Palestine, the 42 stalls at the Palestine Cultural Festival at Katara provides a great opportunity for visitors to get to know the reala culture of the Palestinians.

The stalls offer traditional Palestinian costumes, handicraft, food and local products brought in from Palestine and made by Palestinian artisans who inherited their professions from ancestors and are keen on preserving them.

Wijdan Barghouthi, a Palestinian tailor specialised in fabricating traditional women’s costume “Thawb” in all its different styles came all the way from Ramallah in Palestine bringing a wide variety of Thawbs to introduce them to the visitors of the festival. She said that she was impressed with interaction with visitors of different communities living in Qatar who had never been seen their costumes and traditional dresses. “I also demonstrate to visitors the traditional method of weaving the Thawb which sometimes takes months to do,” she added.

Other stalls offer authentic Palestinian cuisine such as the Falafel and the famous Palestinian dessert Kunafa in all its kinds made from fresh ingredients brought all the way from Palestine. Others sell freshly baked date biscuits which are prepared on special occasions according to Palestinian culture and traditions.

Each Palestinian city has its speciality which was present at the festival, where the traditional soap of Nablus was presented by a group of Palestinian women who made the scented soap before the visitors to demonstrate the traditional way of making it.

“This is the pride of Nablus, I come from the old town of Nablus and that is where we prepare this kind of soap using olive oil and olive leaves that Palestine is rich in,” said Sabrina Aref, a scented soap maker from Nablus. The cultural shows and dances were featured on the stage of the festival demonstrating the traditional Palestinian dance Dabke and several performances by Palestinian musicians and singers. The Palestine Cultural Festival runs until Saturday at Katara.

إقبال كبير على مهرجان فلسطين في «كتارا»

وسط إقبال جماهيري غفير، يواصل مهرجان فلسطين الثقافي في الجهة الجنوبية للحي الثقافي (كتارا) فعالياته التي تمتد حتى 13 أبريل الحالي، بمشاركة نحو 42 عارضاً من مختلف المدن والقرى الفلسطينية، جاؤوا ليقدّموا منتجات متنوعة تعبر عن ثراء المخزون التراثي والثقافي الفلسطيني والجذور التاريخية العريقة للشعب الفلسطيني.

ويعرض المشاركون مشغولات ومنتجات محلية صُنعت في فلسطين من ثياب وأزياء تقليدية وحليّ ومصوغات تراثية، بالإضافة إلى منتجات غذائية .

و ثمّن العارضون أهمية هذا المهرجان في تقديم المنتجات الفلسطينية ومساندة الحرفي والتاجر الفلسطيني وتشجيعه، بما من شأنه أن يدعم السوق المحلي الفلسطيني أمام ما تواجهه من تحديات.

كما أعرب الزوار من مختلف الجنسيات عن إعجابهم بالمهرجان؛ لما يقدّمه من تنوع في المعروضات، حيث يجمع بين ما هو تجاري وما هو ثقافي.