Reporting of events in Israel from an Christian Evangelical perspective. Published in English.

Latest News

  • sTop Canadian Jewish Group ‘Deeply Concerned’ by Federally-Funded Voting Guide That Promoted BDS
  • sBelgian Jewish Leaders Hit Out at Government-Funded Anti-Racism Body Over Antisemitic Carnival Images by Ben Cohen
  • Netanyahu’s biggest challenge ahead by Jason D Hill
  • s’World Take Note!’ Genocide of Christians in Nigeria Raymond Ibrahim
  • Jews, African Americans and the Democrat Party Kenneth Levin
  • BDS is the new face of the old antisemitism: What will we do to stop it? by ADAM MILSTEIN A PROUD ISRAELI-AMERICA
  • Christian Persecution and Presbyterian Church USA’s Obsession with Israel by Joseph Puder
  • UK Labour Party Seeks to Oust Longtime Jewish MP, Opponent of Antisemitism in the Party by Benjamin Kerstein
  • Berlin Authorities Ban Antisemitic Rappers From Anti-Israel Rally at Brandenburg Gate
  • sUS Jewish Leader Calls for Halt to Columbia Donations Over School’s Hosting of Antisemitic Malaysian PM
  • Home
  • Evangelic, Christian
  • Politics
  • News
  • Opinions
  • Judaism
  • Art and Culture
  • Community
  • Featured
  • 929 – תנך ביחד

Renaissance fair brings Camelot to Lebanon by Sam Brennan 

Sep 25, 2018 Amnon Peery Art and Culture, News 0


 

The Middle East’s first-ever Renaissance fair brings together several growing niche communities into one fantasy-filled event.

Al-Monitor/Sam Brennan

Attendees of Tales of Sun and Moon, the Middle East’s first Renaissance fair, come dressed as crusaders, Faitroun, Lebanon, Sept. 22, 2018.

FAITROUN, Lebanon — Wearing tunics, capes, corsets and kilts, hundreds trekked to the Lebanese mountain village of Faitroun, 20 miles from Beirut, to participate in the Middle East’s first ever Renaissance fair, Tales of Moon and Sun. To many a bizarre event, Tales of Moon and Sun is the culmination of multiple growing subcultures and hobbies in the country, ranging from board games to camping.

A Renaissance fair emulates 15th century Europe through elaborate costumes, events such as archery and traditional food. Many Renaissance fairs also revel in anachronisms and fantasy, with Viking raiders and metal-clad crusader knights standing side by side with wizards and elves. The fairs are rare outside the UK and the United States.

But Tales of Sun and Moon, held Sept. 22-23, has introduced Renaissance fairs to the Middle East. The event was organized by Maze of Tales, a company that runs Beirut’s popular Escape the Room, a venue where groups have to solve a series of puzzles and riddles to break out of a locked room. The game aspect was woven into the weekend event.

“We are creating a medieval fantasy. … We are also storytellers. We like to make games that allow a player to discover themselves,” Carla Kamel, the creative director at Maze of Tales, told Al-Monitor.

In this case the game was a day-long, 200-player narrative-driven scavenger hunt. The competitors were divided into two teams, Sun and Moon, and then into smaller clans of 10. The players were told a story by a wise man in a long dark robe, setting up the plot behind the game.

The caped man explained that humans, elves, wizards and orcs once lived in peace. Each race made artifacts as a symbol of their prosperity. However, on one fateful night, the elf king was murdered and his artifact stolen. This grisly crime broke the peace and led to distrust and conflict between the races.

It was the players’ job to find the artifacts of each race by completing challenges such as tightrope walking and drinking competitions, all while uncovering the story behind the king’s murder and the rise of a secretive assassin guild. The clan to find all the artifacts first received the location of the final reward, a treasure chest with $1,000 inside.

Tales of Sun and Moon, with its intensely European appearance, seems to be an odd event for the Middle East. However, for those attending it is a synthesis of various hobbies and interests that have been growing in Lebanon’s younger generation.

“We have quite a large metal community and the metalheads are into Viking culture, and from Vikings you get to Medieval,” said Jihane Abou Zeid, a Lebanese data analyst dressed in a forest green linen-and-leather dress with elf ears peeking through her braided hair. He was referring to patrons of events such as the Sept. 7 Beirut Metal Festival, which was revived in 2018 after a yearlong hiatus.

Abou Zeid added that she became interested in the event through ComicCon, a worldwide pop culture convention that has been running in Lebanon for half a decade. Participants in this event will often make detailed costumes of their favorite fictional character, in a form of fashion and performance art known as cosplay.

For Abou Zeid it was an easy transition from cosplay to the Renaissance fair as she always had a passion for fantasy. She said, “At first it was Harry Potter, then Lord of the Rings, and now it is my whole life.”

Her friend Michael Jacklis, a financial analyst dressed as a 16th century monk reminiscent of Robin Hood’s Friar Tuck, shares Abou Zied’s interest in fantasy novels. He told Al-Monitor, “I have a huge library of fantasy books that I have gathered from around the world.”

However, Jacklis also pointed to his love of popular video games, such as God of War, which follows the violent exploits of ancient pantheons, and Skyrim, one in a series of rich fantasy roleplaying games in the land of Tamriel, as leading to his interest in Renaissance fairs. Gaming is another subculture growing in Lebanon as the first ever Lebanese Gaming Championship, a competition between professional gamers, was held in late August this year.

Moe Bachir, a market researcher for startups, said that his attraction to Tales of Sun and Moon emerged from his passion for comic books. Startup founder Hassan Bayloun said he was fascinated by the event after playing board games such as the tabletop strategy game Dungeons & Dragons.

These disparate niche communities all found various aspects of the event appealing, be it the costumes, gaming or narratives. Even those involved in the organization of Tales of Sun and Moon all have their own reasons for creating it.

Rita Massaad, a Lebanese artist who designed the costumes for the staff and ran a stall where patrons could dress up in a variety of medieval outfits, said her interest was piqued for aesthetic reasons. “We are campers, we are travelers. … We like that everything is handmade, that it is artistic.”

Carla Kamel explained that while her business partner and game designer at Maze of Tales, Karim Khneisser, wanted to start the event because of his love for the history of medieval and Renaissance Europe, she had a different reason: “I have a passion about the fantasy world and I like to do events, because people come to have and explore new things.”

At a glance a Renaissance fair in Lebanon may seem a passing oddity, but to those who went, the event represents a deeper cultural movement within the country.

As Jacklis told Al-Monitor, “It’s a natural progression of these interests, with people accepting them more and more.”

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/09/renaissance-fair-in-beirut.html#ixzz5SBKfsf37


  • tweet
Christians Around the World Pray for Return of Abducted IDF Soldiers Looking back on Oslo, 25 years later by Yossi Beilin 

Related articles
  • sTop Canadian Jewish Group ‘Deeply Concerned’ by Federally-Funded Voting Guide That Promoted BDS
    sTop Canadian Jewish Group ‘Deeply...

    Oct 25, 2019 0

  • sBelgian Jewish Leaders Hit Out at Government-Funded Anti-Racism Body Over Antisemitic Carnival Images by Ben Cohen
    sBelgian Jewish Leaders Hit Out at...

    Oct 25, 2019 0

  • Netanyahu’s biggest challenge ahead by Jason D Hill
    Netanyahu’s biggest challenge ahead...

    Oct 10, 2019 0

  • s’World Take Note!’ Genocide of Christians in Nigeria Raymond Ibrahim
    s’World Take...

    Oct 10, 2019 0

More in this category
  • sTop Canadian Jewish Group ‘Deeply Concerned’ by Federally-Funded Voting Guide That Promoted BDS
    sTop Canadian Jewish Group ‘Deeply...

    Oct 25, 2019 0

  • Christian Persecution and Presbyterian Church USA’s Obsession with Israel by Joseph Puder
    Christian Persecution and Presbyterian...

    Sep 30, 2019 0

  • UK Labour Party Seeks to Oust Longtime Jewish MP, Opponent of Antisemitism in the Party by Benjamin Kerstein
    UK Labour Party Seeks to Oust Longtime...

    Sep 30, 2019 0

  • Berlin Authorities Ban Antisemitic Rappers From Anti-Israel Rally at Brandenburg Gate
    Berlin Authorities Ban Antisemitic...

    Sep 25, 2019 0


Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search Our Site

OUR SITES אתרי מבט

 

 

 

Mabat Digitalic

Follow Us!

Today’s Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=67&v=vjq7Cha_Rpk

Zechariah’s Vision of Plague of Rotting Flesh Appears in China By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz

 

 

 

 

 

(Photo: Aish.com / YouTube)

Despite advances in modern medicine, China is setting up roadblocks to cope with an outbreak of an ancient plague that once wiped out one-third of the world’s population and may have been one of the plagues that God used to strike Egypt.

Chinese officials installed temperature scanners at airports and checkpoints on main roads in an attempt to stop the spread of Bubonic plague as a fourth case was discovered in less than three weeks. A program to exterminate rats and fleas, which carry the disease, was also launched in Inner Mongolia where the disease seems to be originating.

Read more

Top European Lawyers Honor Iranian Human Rights Advocates With Prestigious Award

Demonstrators gather in solidarity with anti-regime protests in Iran outside the Iranian Embassy in Helsinki, Finland. Photo: Reuters / Lehtikuva / Heikki Saukkomaa.

Four human rights lawyers currently imprisoned by the Iranian regime have been awarded with the annual prize of Europe’s most prestigious lawyers’ association.

The Iranian lawyers received the 2019 Human Rights Award from The Council of Bars and Law Societies Of Europe (CCBE) — a body that represents the bars and law societies of 45 countries and through them more than 1 million European lawyers.

 

Read more

UK Jewish Groups Welcome University of Bristol’s Adoption International Antisemitism Definition

The University of Bristol campus. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The University of Bristol in England has adopted “in full” the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, the school’s Epigram independent student newspaper reported on Monday.

The Union of Jewish Students (UJS) and Bristol’s Jewish Society (J-Soc) welcomed the move, saying, “The University of Bristol has not been free of antisemitic incidents and the adoption of this definition is an important first step in helping the university tackle anti-Jewish racism. We now expect the university to use this definition in outstanding disciplinary cases.”

 

Read more

Pope Advances One World Religion Agenda: Presents Buddhist Leader with Manifesto

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz

Pope Francis Meets Thailand’s Buddhist Patriarch in Golden Temple (screenshot)

Pope Francis topped off his three-day visit to Thailand last Saturday with a meeting with Thailand’s supreme Buddhist patriarch Somdej Phra Maha Muneewong at Bangkok’s Ratchabophit Temple. The meeting took place in front of a 150-year-old gold statue of Buddha. The Pope followed Buddhist custom by removing his shoes.

During the meeting, the Pope gave the Buddhist Patriarch the Declaration on Human Brotherhood.  The Declaration s a joint statement signed by Pope Francis of the Catholic Church and Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, last February in Abu Dhabi. The Pope met with the Imam last month to reinforce the Declaration.

Read more

Israeli Company Seeks to Use Space Technology to Solve Pressing Pollution Problem on Earth by Lauren Izso

An Israeli company says it is using space travel technology to help solve one of the most pressing problems down on Earth — the reliance on diesel fuel, a major source of pollution.

Israeli startup GenCell has developed an electric generator based on a hydrogen-energy technology used to power some of the most-famous space missions in history.

 

Read more

News

sTop Canadian Jewish Group ‘Deeply Concerned’ by Federally-Funded Voting Guide That Promoted BDS

sTop Canadian Jewish Group ‘Deeply Concerned’ by Federally-Funded...

Oct 25, 2019 0

  People arrive at a polling station to vote in the federal election in Beauce, Quebec, Canada, Oct. 21, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Mathieu Belanger. A top Jewish advocacy group said on Friday it...
Read More
Christian Persecution and Presbyterian Church USA’s Obsession with Israel by Joseph Puder

Christian Persecution and Presbyterian Church...

Sep 30, 2019 0

UK Labour Party Seeks to Oust Longtime Jewish MP, Opponent of Antisemitism in the Party by Benjamin Kerstein

UK Labour Party Seeks to Oust Longtime Jewish MP,...

Sep 30, 2019 0

Berlin Authorities Ban Antisemitic Rappers From Anti-Israel Rally at Brandenburg Gate

Berlin Authorities Ban Antisemitic Rappers From...

Sep 25, 2019 0

Canada: Orthodox Priest Fired for Praying for Israel

Canada: Orthodox Priest Fired for Praying for...

Sep 08, 2019 0

New column!

shlomo vile : How Christian Zionism Reveals the Unity of God

The verse (Deuteronomy 6:4) Shema Yisrael – “Hear Oh Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is One” – is understood to (in Wikipedia’s words) “encapsulate the monotheistic essence of Judaism.” It’s understood to be a declaration not only there is one and only one God, but also that God’s oneness is all-inclusive. God includes every particle of existence is within Him. God is not just ruling over the world. God encompasses the world. Time and space and all of us are within God. Nothing stands outside of God’s Oneness, and God encompasses all existence equally

Read More

Caroline Glick : The Split Screen

Watching events unfold in Israel is an experience in split-screen living. On the right side of the screen is the chaos outside our gates, in neighboring lands. And on the left side of the screen is the chaos inside.

On the left side of the screen on Tuesday, 15,000 Israelis gathered Tuesday evening outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art to demand legal justice for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the face of what they view as an anti-democratic usurpation of political power by Israel’s legal fraternity.

Read More

David Nekrutman :A Simple Thank You to our Christian Friends

It hard to believe that two weeks ago, Israel was on the brink of war. With the Palestinian Islamic Jihad firing nearly 500 missiles from Gaza into Israel within a 48-hour period, even Tel Aviv was put on alert and certain train routes were canceled. My mind immediately raced to a Christian group I was going to host for Shabbat in Jerusalem Israel – Pastor Leroy Armstrong of Proclaiming the Word Ministries.

 

Read More

Raymond Ibrahim : Turkey: Reliving the Glory/Gory Days of Jihad

Turkey’s little remarked on but ongoing mistreatment of historic churches is increasingly reflective of that nation’s growing sense of Islamic supremacism.

Before the Turks invaded it, Anatolia (present day Turkey) was an ancient Christian region; a large chunk of St. Paul’s epistles were sent to or dealt with its churches, including the seven of the Apocalypse.  With the Turks’ conquest, colonization, and subsequent Turkification of Anatolia—hence why it’s now simply called “Turkey”—tens of thousands of churches were systematically desecrated and turned into victory mosques.

 

Read More

Ronn Torossian: Why Do American Jews Stand With Terrorists Families?

Sorek was the grandson of a Rabbi who survived the Holocaust, and was universally described as a kind, gentle soul. His funeral was interrupted by Palestinians shooting off fireworks celebrating his murder.

Two terrorists, including one affiliated with Hamas were arrested for the murder.  And at the time, Hamas said in a statement, “We salute the hero fighters, sons of our people, who carried out the heroic operation which killed a soldier of the occupation army,” Hamas said in a statement. The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad also hailed the killing as “heroic and bold.”

Read More

Categories

RSS News

  • Turkey adds Abbas rival to list of wanted terrorists
  • Nasrallah: Iran will defend itself
  • UN extends UNRWA mission until 2023
  • Johnson: Let the healing begin
  • UNESCO pulls anti-Semitic Belgian carnival from heritage list

Today’s Video

Archives

Copyright 2019 | MabatZion.com | All rights reserved