Millbrae Priest Shares Lebanese Culture at Festival

The  will be filled with tabouleh and toe-tapping traditional Dabkeh dances on Saturday. The Bay Area’s first Lebanese Festival is coming to Redwood City.

The Lebanese population is just one of the many ethnic groups representing the Bay Area’s diversity. Priest John Nahal of the Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church estimates that there are about 6,000 in the area. His church in Millbrae serves about 3,000 of them.

“This is a chance to promote our culture for sure,” said Nahal. “Our food is very delicious and very healthy.

The Our Lady of Lebanon church was founded in 1979 and attracted people from Lebanon of the Eastern Catholic faith as a place to pray and socialize, Nahal said.

He highlighted the church’s hummus, falafel, kebab and tabouleh as the more recognizable cuisine. There will also be beer and wine to those who are old enough. He added this was a chance to expose others to the Lebanese customs and rituals.

“There’s no road map for us to follow,” said Abraham Sahyoun, chair of the entertainment committee, of the first festival in the Bay Area.

The festival took months of planning, involving 17 committees that focused on everything from vendor recruitment to entertainment.

But with the Lebanese’s traditional lively music and inclusive dances, it would seem impossible for attendees to not enjoy himself.

Sahyoun explains that many traditional dances involve holding hands in a row and moving their feet to a specific rhythm. Instruments include the guitar, small drums and the oriental oud.

“[The music] is very energetic and drives people to dance,” Sahyoun said.

There will be professional performances as well as younger children performing Lebanese songs, including a traditional wedding song.

“It was scary at first because we didn’t have enough entertainers who wanted to perform,” Sahyoun said. “Now we’ve had to turn some people away.”

He had originally served as a priest in a church in San Antonio, Texas, for 11 years before moving to the Bay Area in 2007.

“[The Bay Area] is a very warm and active community,” Nahal said. “Brothers and sisters are coming from different parts of the world, celebrating different traditions and rituals while still celebrating the same law.”

The festival will take place at the Community Activities Building at 1400 Roosevelt Avenue in Redwood City on Saturday, Sept. 3, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

For more information, visit lebanesefestivalbayarea.org.

Correction: The original article spelled the priest's name as "Mahal."