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Halifax's Lebanese community preserves cultural identity through generations

7-10-2019

If you went for a walk on Halifax’s waterfront recently, you might have noticed the statue that represents the Lebanese immigrants who settled in Canada 130 years ago.

It seems as if no matter how long they have been in Canada, immigrants preserve their culture and pass it on to the next generation.

“I’m so used to here, but I’m Lebanese,” said Joulia Jabbour, a Saint Mary’s University student.

She immigrated with the family to Halifax when she was seven years old.


“I love both countries, but, in the end, Lebanon is my home,” Jabbour said.

Her family moved to Canada looking for a better life. Her parents and two brothers live here, but her only sister got married and moved back to Lebanon after spending 16 years in Canada.

Even though Canada is safer and more stable than Lebanon, and there are more opportunities here, Jabbour always “waits for Christmas time or summer time to just go back to Lebanon.”

“My heart is over there,” she said. “It has to do with identity.”

She feels more Lebanese than Canadian. “Inside the house everything is Lebanese. Outside the house everything is Canadian,” is the way she described her life.

Jabbour studies French at Saint Mary’s. She also works at a French-language school helping kids with their homework and by doing activities with them so they practice their French language. After Arabic, French is more common than English as a second language in Lebanon.

Although she feels homesick, Jabbour still won’t consider moving back to Lebanon permanently. “It’s very hard to live there. I’m not used to that,” she said.

Jabbour usually visits her family’s home in the mountainous village of Dimane in Northern Lebanon twice a year. There, she gets to meet her relatives who live in Lebanon and other countries including Australia.

“We miss each other, so (when we meet) we make the best of it,” she said.

They enjoy a lot of free time when they gather in Lebanon. “Here, everyone is busy; everyone is at work.”

Keeping the culture and having strong bonds with their home country is common for Lebanese folks in Nova Scotia.

Zakhour Faddoul came to Canada in 1968, before the start of the Lebanese civil war in the mid-1970s. “They said then Lebanon died. But I said how would Lebanon die with millions of people living in it? Every Lebanese person can build his Lebanon,” he said.

Early Lebanese immigrants kept their music and traditions and taught them to their kids. “We opened an Arabic school and Lebanese clubs, so we live the Lebanese lifestyle,” he said.

The Canadian Lebanon Society of Halifax was founded in November 1938. “Its goals were to introduce and to connect Lebanese immigrants with each other here, to help newcomers, and to preserve the language.”

“The first settlers raised their kids with the Lebanese culture,” Faddoul said. “They couldn’t understand the prayers at the churches that where in English and Latin … There were only a few of them.”

Their aim was to be able to pray in Arabic and to bring the community together. “In 1979, we built a Lebanese church,” he said. There are now two Lebanese churches in Halifax – one Maronite and one Orthodox.

The Canadian Lebanon Society is for all Lebanese people in Halifax. “We had Druze members and Muslim Sunni members,” Faddoul said. “The society is still helping the community members till today.”

Faddoul, like many others, took his kids to Lebanon to introduce them to their home country and help them form an attachement to their roots. He believes the value of family is important for people from Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries. That’s why Lebanese people are more connected to their home country, Faddoul said.

Lebanese people are hard workers and successful in business. Those “who were once job seekers became job providers,” he said. Without the Lebanese developers, Halifax wouldn’t see this construction boom, Faddoul said.

“Our community is full of well-educated people.” Doctors, engineers, and other professionals became productive member in society here, while maintaining a strong connection with Lebanon, he said.

“Those who were born here won’t leave their country (Canada), but their parents made them love their home country and when they visited Lebanon, they fall in love with its lifestyle, nature, and weather.”

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