World Cup preparations

Brazil flags are going up all around the Old City in preparation for the World Cup. There are also Italian, German, French and English flags around, but the Brazilian flag is the most prominent. Approximately 5 million Syrians live in Brazil since they started to emigrate there in the 1890s. The word for apricot in Portuguese is damasco

The month of Mary

May is Mary Month in Syria. All month, women and girls in Damascus's Christian quarter can be seen wearing hotmail-blue dresses with white rope belts around their waist, to emulate the Virgin Mary. They are all praying for something, whether it is a male baby, or just a way out of a difficult situation or success in exams. All month they pray fervently to the Virgin every morning at special masses. The last day of the month is marked by militaristic marching bands as statues and pictures of the Virgin are paraded around the narrow streets.