First rain in mieh w mieh is something of an extraordinary. Usually this happens every year by the end of September, beginning of October (as it happened this year, October 13). The wind starts to blow, clouds starts to gather in the sky, and thunder roar amplifies in the mountains and valleys surrounding Mieh w Mieh, giving a noise that would let you think of nature furies, making you stay home and wait the first rain to start. Once that happens, a remarkable smell of the first rain is every where in the air, and everybody starts preparing to go to the fields and collect snails.

Snails in Nature.

This is a habit that has been forwarded from generation to generation, from grandfathers to grandchildren, and young generation enjoy eagerly going and collecting snails in the fields. Everybody prepares what they want to wear next morning, some old clothes and old shoes, prepare small bags, and go to sleep early. A long wait until dawn, children merely sleeps at night, and even some people take some lamps and go before even the first day light, in order to find as much snails as possible before the sun rises. Some even goes to village neighbouring Mieh w Mieh, especially to the south villages, where snails are available in high amounts. When you go to the fields in the morning, you start collecting snails, and many times you realize that some people already had marched from that area, and sometime you meet people that it has been long time that you did not see in the village.

Mieh w Mieh Under Rain.

Mieh w Mieh Under Rain.

Here the thing to note is the feeling involved, and not the act itself. Whom of you that ever experienced this act during their childhood in Mieh w Mieh would understand the feeling, and while reading this article, they would go back by memories to theses days, and would feel the happiness of those moments.

After collecting the snails and coming back home, children start counting and every child would tell his friends how many snails he collected.

The next day, or the next weekend, almost all the village is cooking snails, and many relatives and friends gather for this occasion, eat Lebanese meze, tabbouleh, homos, baba ghannouj, warak arich, etc and drink Arak with it (Lebanese strong drink).

Let us hope these events continues, and the village’s customs holds to the coming generations.