Bahrain’s abundance of water attracted people since antiquity and gave the country its Arabic name “the two seas’. According to Mesopotamian Mythology, Dilmun – ancient Bahrain – was blessed with abundant artesian water springs. These submarine fresh water springs had supported the pearling industry in Bahrain and defined the location of main urban centers. Water springs were important supplies for fishermen and provided water to villages via water pipes. Sadly, the rapid urbanization of Bahrain has seriously affected the once plentiful reserves of groundwater.
What is the 25th edition of the Bahrain Heritage Festival all about?
It tells the story of:
A country that carries the memory of so many water springs. A country that slumbered peacefully for years with a water spring flowing in its heart and palm trees growing its head. A country that awoke to search for its heritage when its water springs ultimately ran dry, as farmers spoke about how the land once looked and weddings continued to sing with joy. It has many homes which were built around a nearby water spring, and horses trotting towards familiar places that cease to be there.
It tells the story of:
Water springs that are said to have formed by nature and blessed by God to gush forth in channels with not so much as a single drop going to waste before reaching its destinations. It is water that used to flow between the villages and cities, never to return as more water followed behind it; like a river but not really, never doubling back or depleting. Not a myth, but a reality!
It tells the story of:
A water spring asks another, when the water dries, will we go as well? Will our memory fade away? Does our homeland cease to exist? Does a palm tree that is not being chased disappear?
Water springs that have run dry do not simply go away. Here is where their stories live on, here is where their palm trees have taken root, and here is a country bearing their name. Here is Bahrain's 25th Annual Heritage Festival, which creates from their memory a place to listen to “the Stores of Our Springs”.
