THE MAHRAJAN: AN ANNUAL FESTIVAL CELEBRATING HISTORY, FAMILY, TRADITION AND MEMORIES
It’s that time of year again, time for the Mahrajan, a festival hosted annually at Oglebay’s Site 1 by Our Lady of Lebanon Church. This year, the festival will take place on Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, beginning with a Maronite Catholic mass at 10:30, followed by food, music, games and various activities starting at noon and lasting throughout the afternoon. I was at the church recently to go over some new procedures being implemented this year for the cashiers when I started flipping through the 2015 festival program. My eyes went directly to my grandfather’s name in the Mahrajan Chairman’s Welcome and I immediately starting tearing up. Although he has been gone from this earth nearly 25 years now, my grandfather is never far from my thoughts. Some of my most cherished memories involve time spent with him in my grandparents’ kitchen helping him to make kibbee. Although Our Lady of Lebanon is not my regular parish, I started helping at the Mahrajan shortly after I returned to Wheeling when I agreed to give one of my cousins a 15-minute “break” from his cashier duties and the rest is history. I continue to help each year, however, in memory of my grandfather.
In addition to advising that the proceeds of this year’s Mahrajan will assist in re-designing and improving the area adjacent to the church where a monument honoring the 11 Our Lady of Lebanon parishioners who gave their lives serving our country in World War II and the Korean War sits, the Chairman’s Welcome took time to recognize individual parishioners, including my grandfather, who served our armed forces in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. That the proceeds of the Mahrajan will go toward honoring and preserving the history of the church and its parishioners is not something new. In fact, the Mahrajan was initiated in effort to re-build the church after it had been destroyed by fire and to commemorate what has become known as the Miracle of Our Lady of Lebanon Church.
On Dec. 19, 1932, a fire gutted the then10-year-old church. At the time of the fire, a life-sized portrait of Mary, the Blessed Mother, with the Cedars of Lebanon in the design’s background, hung in the church above a shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Lebanon. The oil painting survived both the fire and a 25-foot drop to the ground unscathed. Many of the firefighters who battled the fire attested to the miraculous preservation of the portrait. One of the firefighters recounted his own experience leveling the main pressure hose at the portrait and the water, with all of its velocity, being diverted from the picture. After the fire, the Blessed Mother appeared simultaneously in a dream to both the bishop and the pastor of Our Lady of Lebanon with the message that the portrait be hung above the main alter of the re-built church. To this day, the portrait of Our Lady of Lebanon that survived the Dec. 19, 1932 fire, hangs just above the church’s tabernacle.
In the words of Pastor Monsignor Bakhos Chidiac in his welcoming message to this year’s 82nd Mahrajan:
“Our Mahrajan is not about raising funds rather it is about keeping the tradition of our ancestors alive. It is about building memories of ‘togetherness’ in the hearts of the new generation as we hand the torch to them and ask them to keep its flame alive and burning strong through the future years.”
As I flip through the 2015 Mahrajan program, it is obvious from the pages and pages of memorial tributes to deceased family members, that Monsignor Chidiac’s welcoming words have captured the essence of the modern day Mahrajan. As I looked through the list of volunteers during my recent visit to the church office, I saw many names I recognized, including some that I did not realize had any affiliation with Our Lady of Lebanon before reading through the memorial tributes to family members in the program.
As we keep the tradition of the Mahrajan alive, I invite you to join us on Sunday Aug. 9, 2015 at Site 1 for an afternoon of food, music and memories. Admission is free with food and beverages available for purchase. I will be there throughout the day next to a couple of my cousins acting as cashiers at the main food line where traditional foods such as kibbe, tabouli, stuffed grape leaves and shish kebab are served. My aunt will join us at for a time and my mom and some of my other cousins will be at various other booths during the course of the day. For those who prefer more “American” food, you have options, including hot dogs and ice cream to name a few. There will also be a table with incredible pastries for sale. I hope to see you there as we celebrate our heritage and the family members who came before us.
