The Story of Fatoush

With Ramadan month going on and Fatoush a regular dish for breaking Ramadan fast in Lebanon, I am sharing the story of the origin of Fatoush.

In the mid-1800s, and as typical of interference of big powers in small countries, European countries convinced the Ottomans occupying Mount Lebanon to split the region into a Christian and Druze regions. This started a severe civil war in 1862 killing tens of thousands of Christians in the area.

During that war, a group of Christians fled Mount Lebanon on foot to Zahleh, in the Beqaa Valley. A rich resident in Zahleh from the Fatoush family opened his doors to these refugees with a table spread of all sorts of meat dishes to give them strength after their long trek. But it was lent and these refugees has vowed that if they make it out safely, they will not eat any meat all lent.

So they went for all the vegetables on the table, mixed them together and started eating it with Pita bread. One of the invitees told the host: “Fatoush, look a new dish is created, a salad with pita bread”. The Catholic Patriarch of the Greek Catholics, who was attending the meal, immediately claimed: “Perfect, we will call this dish Fatoush and we will eat it throughout lent”. 

Coincidentally that year, Ramadan was going on at the same time as Easter Lent. Muslims in Zahleh and surrounding area picked up the dish and started having it when breaking their fast at the end of the Ramadan day.

And this is how the dish was created and became associated with both Easter Lent and Ramadan Fasting showing how peaceful we Muslims and Christian lived together without interference from external big powers and arm manufacturing countries.

 

The original story, in Arabic, is found at http://mobp.as/qKWTc

Fatoush Recipe Can be Found HERE