Love Syrian Style

Since Lebanon's Primer Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated on Valentine's Day in 2005, the holiday hasn't been celebrated with much enthusiasm in Lebanon. But in Syria, Valentine's Day started making inroads about five years ago and is now embraced with commercial gusto. Whole shops in Old City souks that might otherwise be selling Hizballah T-shirts and and Chinese-made housewares have been given over to stuffed animals and plastic flowers and big red hearts make of polyester satin.

Not everyone is a fan. Many Muslims wonder why the country, which is 90 percent Muslim and just 10 percent Christian, should be swooning over the celebration of a Christian saint. Others have discovered another time-honored Valentine's Day tradition: cynicism. "It's all lies," one shopkeeper told me while he was showing off his display of red and white teddy bears emblazoned with "I Love You" in English. "If you have to make a big deal out of it on one day of the year, it probably isn't true."

The day itself is celebrated according to the strict norms of Syrian courtship. Reservations at a cozy and secluded restaurant just aren't the done thing. Instead, Damascenes attend large parties with music and dancing and lots of watchful eyes and where feet stay on the floor.

Syrian youngsters often have boyfriends or girlfriends, but they don't often date in the Western sense. They rarely get to see each other alone, and they can forget about getting onto base. More likely, these chaste friendships are stages on the road to engagement and marriage. And those are the lucky romantic ones. Quite often, Cupid's Arrow comes in the form of the arranged meddling of Aunt Fatima.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Damascus