Saint Barbara is the Patron Saint of Middle Eastern Christians. Her feast is celebrated on December 4th to honor her martyrdom by her own father, for not accepting to renounce her Christianity.
Her father, who was a pagan, locked her up in a tower since she was truly good-looking. As soon as she confessed to him about her faith in the Lord, he wanted to kill her. So, she disguised herself and fled from the Romans who were also prosecuting her for her faith.
A miracle took place when she was running away from her father and the Romans, and ran through a field of recently planted wheat. The wheat immediately grew to hide her steps.
Saint Barbara's Day is widely celebrated by local Christian communities in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Turkey. The holiday symbolizes the beginning of Christmas season in the Middle East.
The traditional food served on this day is Burbara, which is a porridge-like dessert made of boiled wheat berries mixed with sugar and many spices including cinnamon powder, ground anise, and ground fennel.
This dessert dish can be topped with so many things. The options are endless. These are some of the most ones used by Christians in the Holy Land:
- Dried cranberries
- Dried grapes
- Dried apricot
- Sugar coated fennel seeds
- Various nuts and seeds (Almonds work perfectly here)
- Coconut shreds
- Cinnamon powder
- Sprinkles
Saint Barbara's day is commended every year by getting the family together to appreciate this delightful wheatberry sweet dish.
Happy Saint Barbara's Feast!
At our workshop, we have many Jerusalem wood carved religious pieces which are produced to help Christians in the Holy Land and around the world share their faith and glory to God in the highest with the best quality.
Although we don’t have Barbara figurines yet, we do have outstanding stone mosaic artwork of St. Michael's that comes with a beautiful wooden frame to be hanged on a wall.
We also have figurines of other saints like olive wood Saint Anne statue, Saint John Olive Wood Hand Carved Statue, and Saint Francis of Assisi Olive Wood Hand Carved Sculpture.
For all the hand carved olive wood Saints Statuettes that we have, check our Saints category on our online market where you can view the items in 360 degrees by clicking here.
We, the Bethlehem Handicrafts’ team, are so proud to put the Holy Land in your hand by giving you a variety of the best and the most outstanding original Bethlehem’s olive wood carvings with the best quality made in the Holy Land.
