Valentine's Day: Cultural Exchange for Love and Unity

A week before Valentine's Day, students on campus gathered to make homemade cards in a project with the Spiritual Life Center. Some cards will travel across the country and the world to where the students have left their loved ones to earn a peacebuilding degree. 

Lebanon and Egypt have similar customs to those in the U.S., such as giving chocolates, flowers, cards, and stuffed animals. However, what sets them apart are the unique expressions and sentiments written in their letters and cards and the diverse ways of saying "I love you."

For example, our Muslim Lebanese student explained a quite profound and endearing expression of love that culture has: "To'borne," roughly translated to "may you bury me" or "you make me die." She said that if you genuinely love someone, you'd rather die first and have them bury you because you can't live without them.  

To this, our Christian Egyptian student added a phrase from her country that also includes love and death in its meaning: "Bamoot feek," which loosely translates to "I die in you" or "I love you to death."

The craft night became a heartfelt exchange of stories, traditions, and cherished anecdotes. The students experienced the power of cultural exchange in building bridges of love and unity.