Christianity | Lebanon

A Greek Catholic Lebanese Bedouin attending Christmas midnight mass.
Brumana
Photographer Fadi Boukaram is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this social documentary photography. From the ‘Articles of Faith’ project. To see Fadi’s body of work, click on any image.

During the month of May of each year, some folks make vows to walk barefoot up from the coast to reach the Our Lady of Lebanon shrine, a 7-kilometer mountain hike.
Harissa

Indian and Lebanese worshipers below a statue of the virgin at the Our Lady of Lebanon shrine
Harissa

A girl plays football on her First Communion day, a rite of passage celebration allowing the child to start receiving consecrated bread and wine during mass.
Bikfaya
“In Lebanon, saying one is Christian is not always a religious statement; it is more often political or cultural. By the end of the 15-year civil war in 1990, Christianity– in its three largest denominations there: Maronite Catholicism, Greek Orthodoxy, and Greek Catholicism — had lost its majority status due the large number of its constituents emigrating to Europe, Australia, and North America. Now a minority, even if a substantial one, Lebanese Christians are increasingly resorting to overt signs of religiosity as way to signal their presence and mark their territory: crucifixes are worn bigger, statues are commissioned larger, and more masses and vigils are celebrated outdoors.”

Large scale statues at a cross street. Below, left to right, St. Michael, St. George, and the Prophet Elijah.
Jdeideh

A girl with a bruised face lights a candle on Maundy Thursday, the evening before Good Friday, when Greek and Maronite Catholics visit and pray in 7 churches Brumana

A woman covers her head with a mantilla, a practice still common among the elderly, below an icon of Saint Charbel, Lebanon’s most venerated saint.
Brumana
All images & text © Fadi Boukaram
See also:
By Fadi Boukaram