July 6, 2009 by kaleidoscopefuzz

A TRADITIONAL WEDDING by Sabreen Asad

A huge fan of weddings, Radio Lajee’s Sabreen Asad explores some of the unique Palestinian traditions that make these special days such memorable occasions. Featuring recordings of folkloric songs used to celebrate the many different rituals accompanying the union, Sabreen’s story is a must for romantics and lovers of music alike.

Click Here To Show Transcript

Sabreen: I love weddings and it’s a very important part in our life. It comes to my mind all the time because my sister married last summer – so, I wrote about the wedding.

[Music plays: featuring a small group of three Palestinian women singing.]

Sabreen: This is a traditional Palestinian wedding song. The day before the wedding is called ‘Al Henna”. On this day, the older generation of Palestinian women dance to it. It talks about marriage, happiness and new beginnings.

In the past, the Palestinian wedding was open to all people without invitation; because people living in the villages were close to each other. Most girls got married between the age of fifteen and twenty and the men got married between 20 and 25.

To marry, the groom must first ask permission from the ‘bride to be’s’ family.
Once the permission has been received, they discuss what money and gold the groom will provide to the bride. In Arabic this is called “a muher”.

[Music plays: featuring the sound of 1 Palestinian woman singing a kind of a Capella chant]

Sabreen: One day before the wedding the male friends and family of the groom would attend a ‘Saharah’ which would be held in the front garden of the groom’s family house. And the female friends and family of the bride attend ‘ al henna’ and celebrated inside the home of the bride’s family. The female family members painted their hands with henna.

Um Raed is a neighbour of mine. She’s old enough to remember what traditional Palestinian weddings are like.

[Sound of an older woman speaking in Arabic]

Um Raed Translation: The 2 families of the bride and the groom decide on a date for the wedding. Then, the groom’s family start to prepare an apartment or room for their son to live in. They prepare everything: They paint it, clean it, furnish it…
And then a week before the wedding, the bride’s family invites their friends and neighbours to celebrate with them every night in their home.

Usually people started celebrating a week from the wedding. This depended on the family’s financial situation and also, the weather. So, for example, they may celebrate for 2 to 3 days leading up to the big day…or sometimes for a full week.

Then, on the wedding day itself, the groom’s friends perform what we call in Arabic, “Al-Zaffeh.” This involves carrying the groom while they are in the middle of dancing and singing from his home all the way to the bride’s house. There, the bride’s family welcome the entourage at the entrance to the house, while the bride remains inside with her friends. Usually the bride’s father, eldest brother or uncle, escorts the bride to the entrance of the house to meet her groom. Then, the family makes the groom promise to take care of their daughter.

After that, the groom ushers the bride – nowadays into a car – but in the past they would lift the bride on to the back of a camel or horse. And then, the 2 families perform a second “Al-zaffeh” but this time for the happy couple, until they reach the groom’s house.

Sabreen: Then the groom would receive a lot of advice from his friends.

[Music plays: featuring the sounds of a group of men singing – the lyrics offer different pieces of advice to the groom]

Sabreen: Now, weddings are a little different but I’m happy that many of these traditions are still alive today.

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December 12, 2008 by kaleidoscopefuzz

THE CAMP WAY, BACK WHEN by Layan Azza

In this edition, 18 year old Layan Azza asks her grandfather what Aida Camp was like when he arrived there as a boy 60 years ago, and was forced to live and study in makeshift tents. She then compares it with the present day camp which has become a virtual small town with houses that have electricity, satellite TV and even, in some cases, the Internet.

Click Here To Show Transcript

LAYAN AZZA: Hi, I’m Layan Azza. One of the Radio Lajee team. I’m 18 years old and have lived in Aida Refugee Camp all my life. It was established in 1950 and has changed a lot.

My grandfather, now 75 years old, was one of the first refugees to arrive here. He was 14 years old.

How long have you been living in the camp?

MOHAMAD AZZA (Layan’s Grandfather): Around 60 years.

LAYAN AZZA: Can you describe what Aida Camp looked like when you first arrived?

MOHAMAD AZZA: The camp was just a piece of land…Some trees and big rocks. And every family, they had a tent from UNRWA and they built it and they put the stones around the tent.
It was very hard for us, especially in the winter. Some nights it would snow and the tent [would] fall down on the family…on the kids and the family. And maybe some head of that family [would spend] all the night holding the tent, till the morning.

LAYAN AZZA: What did you take to camp with you from your home in Beit Jibreen?

MOHAMAD AZZA: We didn’t take anything…heavy things. We took our dress, special dresses…and some mattresses and covers…to cover us and our kids during the night when we were walking from our village to Hebron. We walked from our village to Hebron [over] 2 nights and we had some mattresses and covers only. We couldn’t carry anything heavy because we didn’t have any cars with us or anything. Because we were thinking maybe we’ll return back after 2 days, 3 days, a week…2 weeks.

LAYAN AZZA: Did you get your keys to your home?

MOHAMAD AZZA: Yes, it was with my mother and father. The key means to me that I have to return to my home, to my village, to my land…one day. I hope that.

LAYAN AZZA: How was the situation here? What sort of life did people have here in The Camp?

MOHAMAD AZZA: The situation was very, very hard for the people. There was no work. They don’t have money. They didn’t have any food – they didn’t have anything. Except what UNRWA gave them. In the first ten – fifteen years, they gave the people every month some flour, rice and sugar or something. That’s it. People were poor, they were very sad living in their tents. They can’t go out because they don’t have any anything with them.

LAYAN AZZA: You were still a kid at school when you came here, so…were there any classes or teaches in the camp?

MOHAMAD AZZA: We had teachers…but we didn’t have any chairs, any desks, any things…We sat on the earth – on the ground. Around 3 or four years [were] like this. And after that, UNRWA started to bring chairs and desks to the students and big tents.

LAYAN AZZA: That was my Grandfather, talking about The Camp when he arrived 60 years ago.

[Sound of kids playing in the school courtyard]

Now it’s different; we have 2 schools: one for the boys and one for the girls. We don’t live in tents anymore. Now we have houses and electricity. Some people have satellite TV and a few people have internet. Water? Water is still a big problem…But, it is also a big story – for another time.

When my Grandfather came here there were around 160 people…but now, we have around 5000 people living in the same space. So we are crowded!

I hate living in the camp because I know my family once had land. But now, somebody else is living on that land.

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November 26, 2008 by kaleidoscopefuzz

WHY I DANCE by Miras Al Azzeh

Ahlan wa sahlan! Welcome to the first Radio Lajee program. For our first edition, 14 year old Miras Al Azzeh has prepared a special story about the traditional Palestinian dance, Dabke.

In it, he talks about what Dabke means to the Palestinian people and to him personally. He also interviews a Dabke teacher at the Centre, some of the young performers, and his own grandfather who reminisces about Dabke in the days before Occupation.

This story kicks off our podcast series which you can now subscribe to by right (or alt) clicking on the “Podcast Feed” link at the top of this page, copying the URL/Link Location, and pasting it into the subscribe-to-podcast dialog box in your favourite podcatching application eg iTunes, Juice, etc.

Click Here To Show Transcript

MIRAS AL AZZEH: I’m Miras. I’ve been dancing Dabke for 5 years. It means a lot to me, so I made this story about it. Hope you like it.

(sound of children at a Dabke dancing class)

Nasim Abu Isha is one of the Dabke teachers at the Lajee Centre. He runs classes every Thursday for 2 hours. Our troupe now has 20 dancers; 12 boys and 8 girls.

NASIM ABU ISHA: I started learning Dabke since 1998. Before [I was] ten years or eleven, I saw my friend dancing Dabke. I was surprised…[I thought] how do you do that? I can’t do that. So, I started step by step learning how to dance like him. Then I finished training and I preferred [the idea of] being a teacher so I started with [the] Lajee [Centre] teaching Dabke.

When I teach Dabke I feel like I’m free…and I try to translate this feeling into moves. Maybe the people will understand. Maybe, maybe not. But I hope that they understand my message. But, when you teach Dabke, the people who are learning…they start making a new life, especially the children. I hope to make the children [feel] free, especially while they are growing up.

MIRAS AL AZZEH: 14 year old Maysan is one of the dancers in Nasim’s class.

MAYSAN: When I dance Dabke, I feel that I’m defending Palestine. I feel that I’m like [a] mirror, showing the people our tradition and identity. Also, with each movement, I feel that I’m breaking the Israeli separation wall and the checkpoints.

MIRAS AL AZZEH: Dabke wasn’t always political. Sabreen Asad is also a member of Nasim’s class. She explains the history of Dabke before 1948.

SABREEN ASAD: Dabke is the Palestinian traditional folk dance. It can be performed by both males and females or collectively. Before Al Naqba – ‘The Catastrophe’ in 1948, Dabke was performed at weddings, harvest seasons and other celebratory occasions.

MIRAS AL AZZEH: My grandfather is now 76 years old. He was born in Beit Jibreen and he can still remember what Dabke was like back then.

GRANDFATHER, MOHAMMAD AL AZZEH: Every region had its own version of Dabke. In the north, the dance was punctuated by lots of jumping and vigorous movements; whereas in the south, the movements were softer and more routine.

In each village there were many Dabke troupes. At times of celebration, each group took part in the ceremony and would enlist a special dancer (who we called a ‘Louweir’) who would instruct and lead the other dancers. Generally, all groups would sing and play the flute (which we call, in Arabic, a ‘Shoubaba’) while they danced. Today, the children who dance Dabke, keep our tradition alive.

MIRAS AL AZZEH: When I hear my grandfather say that, it makes me feel happy and proud because I know that when I dance Dabke I’m protecting my country’s heritage.

As a Palestinian, I don’t know what the future will be, but I hope to dance Dabke forever.

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October 15, 2008 by kaleidoscopefuzz

Thanks for stopping by…

Salaam! Welcome to Radiolajee.com, the home of a unique series of podcasts created by an eclectic (and enthusiastic) team of Palestinian refugees aged between 10 and 22 years.

You’ll notice that at present, there’s actually nothing here for you to listen to… Why? Well, as Karen Carpenter once whinnied, this podcasting project has “only just begun”… Come the first week of November, the kids will embark on a series of workshops with Australian broadcaster and volunteer, Daz Chandler.

The workshops will cover the fundamentals of podcasting – from program construction, sound recording and presentation and interview techniques, to audio editing and sound design, through to multi-media possibilities and online marketing.

Please stop by again soon to meet the kids and hear their first ever radiolajee installment.

Salaam for now!

More info