What Could Be Better Than Scarf Dancing and Pistachios?

If you had asked us a few weeks ago how we were planning to spend this last weekend, we would have told you we were heading down to Louisville to go to the temple. But then things got busy and the trip had to be postponed. I was a little sad about this, but now, after watching a few news reports, I’m pretty glad we didn’t. Because, you know, it’s no fun to visit a city that is under water.

And so instead of a report about a trip to Louisville, I will tell you about a trip to Indy to complete an assignment for Blake’s diversity class.

Blake and Lindsay’s Adventures at the 2006 Middle Eastern Festival of Indianapolis
sponsored by
St. George Orthodox Christian Church

Cool People Met Up With
A Muslim, a Catholic, and a Latter-day Saint walk into a Syrian/Lebanese Orthodox church…. Man, this could make for a great pre-Sacrament meeting talk anecdote! But I’ll spare you. To be brief, we drove down to Indy with Blake’s classmate, Fajran, who is a Muslim from Jakarta, Indonesia. After we’d been at the Festival for about an hour, another of Blake’s classmates, Frank, along with his wife, Laura, joined us. Frank and Laura are both very strong Catholics – straight from Ireland, practically. (I think it was Frank’s father who immigrated, and so quite a bit of his extended family is still in Ireland…in fact, his uncle is a Catholic priest.) This religious combination comes in handy in case you’re wanting to swap points of doctrines in casual conversation. Most interesting.

Parking Lot Attendants Who Took Their Jobs Too Seriously
I am not even joking. The guy in the orange vest waving the flag baton in the direction of the spot he wanted us to park in must have had some sort of dream parking lot in mind when he knocked on the drivers side window and told us (once we’d stopped the car in what seemed like a decently good parking job) to back up about three inches. What the heck?

Music Listened To
It was raining on Saturday, so most of the festivities had to be moved indoors. So when we walked inside, we were greeted with some extra loud Middle Eastern music brought to us by Amin and the Sultans (apparently the #1 ranked Middle Eastern band in the U.S….who knew?). The music was fabulous and I pretty much just wanted to let my toe tapping get the better of me. It also made me realize that I should learn the technical names for Middle Eastern instruments so that I can sound intelligent in conversations such as this one.

Chapels Toured
The festivities were held in the church cafeteria/cultural room. But if you were interested, you could go on a self-guided tour the chapel on the front end of the building. We did so, partly because it was interesting, and partly because Blake needed material to write about for his diversity class assignment. I thought the chapel was beautiful…stained glass windows and an ornate alter. It was a little too relic-y and incense-y for my tastes, but still very pretty. I have posted a few pictures on our picture site (I'd've posted them here, but blogger is being stupid again).

Auctions Not Participated In
If you’re going to invite the public to be involved in parish activities, you might as well try to make a few extra bucks. And so the organizers incorporated a silent auction into the festivities. Most of the items up for bid were a little on the bizarre side (like the giant candy bars and the shampoo), but there were two things leaning more towards the “I’d bid on this if I had money” side: a basketball signed by Larry Bird, and a handcrafted Syrian wooden box (which was so beautiful).

Food Consumed
Oh, the smell when you walked in the door! Heavenly! (Too bad for Fajran that Saturday was the first day of Ramadan.) We ate some lamb shank (which had been marinated in I don’t know what, but it was delicious) with pita bread, and a good helping of Middle Eastern pastries: bassma, which is like a layered, karo syrup-y, caramel-y pistachio brownie, and baklava (both the walnut and the pistachio varieties). So good!

Items Almost Purchased
There was a bazaar set up against one wall where local Middle Eastern vendors and restaurateurs were selling their wares. One guys had a bunch of olive wood nativity sets that were absolutely beautiful. Our favorite was a little on the pricey side, and so was not an option. What we were left with was a bell-shaped nativity tree ornament. In the end, though, we decided that we’d live in the moment buy pastries instead. (But, if our moment had taken place in the Holy Land, we probably would have gone for the nativity.)

Dancing Watched
Oh, the dancing! Talk about hips and alluring hand movements. And one mustn’t forget the finger cymbals and scarves (of which there were plenty). Thanks to the video feature on our camera, and Amyjane who was kind enough to give me instructions (thanks, Amyjane!), I am able to share a part of the Middle Eastern Festival of Indianapolis with you all. Here are three dances we saw: (You’ll have to pardon fact that I am very new with a video camera, and consequently don’t remember that moving my hands moves the camera as well. Also, please excuse the occasional old lady passing in front of me with her walker, or the hungry visitors who had no idea I was getting their lunch on film.)

Don't you just want to go join in? Yeah...I did, too. But I didn't bring my scarf...or my coordination...or my finger cymbals. Too bad.