Damascene Rose Harvest Festival starts in al-Marah Town, Damascus Countryside

Damascus Countryside, SANA- The Damascene Rose Harvest Festival kicked off today in al-Marah village in Damascus countryside. The Festival includes songs, poetry and folk dances which talk about the Damascene Rose’s beauty and highlight its economic, aesthetic and medical importance, and how it was able to convey the name of Syria to the world after being inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2019. The locals of al-Marah village spread since the early morning carrying baskets in the fields of the rose. They gathered around the bushes that they loved and began to harvest the roses with love and tenderness, spreading their perfume and fragrance in an atmosphere that seemed like a painting in which colors are mixed. Thanks to the support and follow-up provided by the Syria Trust for Development in coordination and cooperation with the local community, the rose has been able to transcend its borders as a flower to become a crop, perfume, food and medicine that represented Syria thousands of years ago and manifested itself as a social ritual with its own aesthetic peculiarity stemming from the rich cultural and heritage reservoir of the Syrian society.