ISRAEL: Kufr Kanna celebrates the end of the pomegranate season with festive cheer

People of all ages participate in the pomegranate festival in Kufr Kanna in the Galilee. The Arab-Israeli town of Kufr Kanna celebrated its third annual Pomegranate Festival on Saturday (October 27) to mark the end of the pomegranate season in the Galilee. The festival was inaugurated three years ago upon the initiative of the Centre for Elderly Development and has since been adopted by the local council and Ahali Centre for Community Development. Local men and women volunteer throughout the festival by squeezing pomegranate juice or giving guided tours of orchards to visitors. "The idea came from the name of Kufr Kanna. For thousands of years, Kufr Kanna's name has been associated with pomegranate. Even the churches have mosaics featuring pomegranates. Over the ages, pomegranate orchards populated all of Kufr Kanna, but they are receding now because of an increase in buildings," says Amal Hannah Besharat, pomegranate festival activities coordinator. Abu Mohammad, a local orchard owner, believes his pomegranates are blessed because Kufr Kanna is thought to be the site of the biblical wedding of Qana, where Christians believe Jesus turned water into wine. "They say that the pomegranates of Kufr Kanna, thousands of years ago, was blessed by our Lord Jesus Christ. He turned water into wine from the pomegranates of Kufr Kanna. And the wedding of Qana of the Galilee took place in the Roman Orthodox church that still exists, not the Latin or the Catholic church, it is Roman Catholic. So the bride of Galilee known all over the world, in Israel, was only in Kufr Kanna because our Lord Jesus Christ blessed it and turned water into wine, and to this very day they sell the wine of Kufr Kanna," says Abu Mohammad. Those attending the day-long festival enjoyed an open buffet of pomegranate-based foods, made by Ahmad Sind, a chef from a local restaurant, the Sahara. Chef Ahmad Sind suggests that pomegranate serves as good dressing for meat or chicken when accompanied with green herbs and vegetables like rocket and cabbages.

ITN Source | October 29, 2007

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