An introduction to popular traditional sports in Lebanon and the Arab countries, written by the founder and president of the Lebanese and Arab federations.
Popular traditional sports go back thousands of years before Christ. Various inscriptions were found in several caves in France, Mongolia, Libya and Japan. These symbols depict games such as swimming, archery, running, wrestling, and others, according to each country, and they date back to the Palaeolithic Age. All countries are proud of their history because these sports carry heritage traditions and introduce sports customs and traditions specific to each country. These sports were often linked to military training because they required high athletic and distinct physical skills that are often found in armies due to the nature of their intense exercises and their preparation to endure hardships, exhaustion, and fatigue to a great extent in order to be qualified to fight harsh battles with the enemy. On the initiative and dream of the founder and president of the Lebanese and Arab Federations for Heritage and Popular Traditional Sports, Mr. Maroun Khalil Khalil, of Lebanese nationality. After he founded the Golden Body Sports Association in Dekwaneh in 1990 It deals with heritage sports first, including taekwondo, karate, judo, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, agility and physical fitness. His dream was to revive and spread popular traditional sports under the slogan “No to fanaticism, no to politics, and no to sleep.” He is the son of the town of Brih Al-Shufiya, and he is from He used to practice and master sports Popular traditionalism since his childhood, and after establishing the Golden Body Association, he began communicating with the leaders of the Lebanese Armed Forces from the army, internal security forces, public security, state security and customs, as he was one of the veterans of the commando regiment of the Lebanese army and believed in the morality of the military institution and the commitment of the military in everything they wanted to do. And perfectly. And he began organizing the first Lebanese championship in the sports of lifting the cart, lifting the roller, lifting the crowbar and ringing the bell, where it was The first official championship was sponsored by General Commander of the Army in 1994 and with the participation of heroes from the army. It was unique as the demand from the public and villagers was unexpected, not to mention the athletes’ love for these sports and the way in which they were carried out It was published and introduced by Professor Maroun Khalil Khalil, and he organized all his tournaments under the slogan, “If the nation’s heritage and past are lost, its present and future are lost.”
He continued to organize periodic tournaments under the auspices of the General Commander of the Army and the commanders of the legitimate armed forces, and all heroes of military institutions, civilians, and school and university students participated in these sports. He also used to increase other popular, distinguished, traditional sports every year and set laws and regulations for them. Until he founded, with a group of philanthropists and patriots, a ministerial committee for popular traditional sports based at the Golden Badi Dekwaneh Association in the Ministry of Youth and Sports, headed by him and with him a group of heads of interested associations from Naqoura to the Great River. He continued to organize periodic tournaments in all sports, which numbered more than Thirty sports with the participation of all the heroes of the armed forces, and organized courses, performances and preparation and refinement courses for trainers And referees in these sports and introduced them to all segments of society. At his side were coaches and referees from the armed forces, accompanying him with the approval of their leaders to all Arab countries with the aim of spreading Lebanese sports abroad. He was familiar with the sports of every country he visited and built a wide network of Arab relations through which he established the Arab Union for Heritage and Popular Traditional Sports in the year 2010 on the sidelines of organizing the first Arab Championship in Lebanon in the presence and supervision of the Union of Arab Olympic Committees and the League of Arab States and the participation of seven Arab countries. After that and with repeated request Among the Lebanese institutions and clubs, he established the Lebanese Federation for Heritage and Popular Traditional Sports, with its headquarters in Golden Badi Dekwaneh and a summer headquarters in Chaouet Brih - Chouf. The Federation was established and transformed from a ministerial committee into a federation by a ministerial decision numbered 1/408/2017, and then the Lebanese Federation was established by a decision numbered 1/408/2017.
His main goal is to complete the work of the committee, which is to republish and revive popular traditional sports, the sports of our fathers and grandfathers, and to begin his journey with his colleagues in the Lebanese and Arab federations, where the goal was serious and continuous work to spread these. Sports, introducing them and delivering them to the largest segment of society. He established committees for all Lebanese regions. He also established committees for each of his sports, which they worked to introduce in cooperation with the armed forces into universities, schools, clubs, municipalities, institutions for people with special needs, and those being treated for drug addiction. And the march continues The number of participants continues to increase as they are convinced of the seriousness of the federation’s work. He and his colleagues set a law for each sport or traditional game to ensure the right to competition. It is noteworthy that military institutions participate in most types of sports At the level of provincial championships, Lebanese championships, shows, and festivals, most of the military institutions now have a special team under the name of the traditional popular sports team.
The sports practiced by military institutions are: Raising the crowbar, lifting the bucket, lifting the roller, squaring the bell, tug of war, the strongest man, the strongest woman, the stand, throwing the crowbar in the manner of an arrow, forearms, stomach, crossbar and endurance, the popular sport of kabaddi, the sport of white weapons, Makabasa (traditional wrestling), arm wrestling (rams). The Federation also worked on regulating laws for other sports and games practiced by the general public, for example: cracking nuts, sawing firewood, tahtib, backgammon (mahbasa and franjieh), card games, paper airplane, smoothing drinks, making apricot ajou, bulbul and kalla, and taqtika. Drinking water, carrying logs of different weights and racing with them over distances and stairs, racing with a car tire and a cane, racing with a bicycle rim, seven stones, carrying a jar, racing with bags, popular traditional cars (derman or roller cars), traditional skating on a gas cap, Traditional board skating, slingshots to name a few. Since its founding, the Union has been working, headed by Mr. Maroun Khalil, in addition to all of the above, to prepare television episodes to be shown on screens. It is also interested in preparing the largest possible number of reports on local and international stations to achieve the goal. The concept of peoples in general in an era of time has changed, but when we began to republish and revive popular traditional sports, we were surprised by the numbers of participation and unprecedented support for this type of sports and its practice from all segments of society. Since the beginning of our journey, we have been presented with shields of gratitude and appreciation throughout Lebanon by the leaders of the Armed Forces for what we do in order to spread and revive these sports and for standing by our side and working with us hand in hand, not to mention the honor that I receive from all the municipalities in which we hold activities. And of course, we have been honored in all the Arab countries whose sports we supervise by decision of the Union of Arab Committees, the Union of Federations, and the League of Arab States. We have many activities on our agenda at the level of Lebanon and the Arab countries. In Lebanon, we are trying hard to organize provincial and Lebanese championships for each sport, and introduce popular traditional games within them. We are also working to prepare reports and television episodes in this context. As for the Arab world, after we were organizing the largest events in Lebanon and only a few in... Arab countries: Today, after the economic situation, we are trying to coordinate with the Arab countries to work on preparing it in the Arab countries, since support in all aspects is available to our people in the Arab countries and is low in Lebanon due to quarrels and conflicts between the people in power.
For more information, please contact:
Maroun Khalil Khalil
tel. 009613821596
tel/fax. 009611688772
e-mail:
