A Pledge and Roses: Dahiyeh Streets Bloom in Honor of Sacrifice and Community

By Fatima Haydar

Beirut – A year after thousands of Lebanese families returned to their homes following the 2024 “Israeli” war on Lebanon, the streets of Dahiyeh were lined with roses—simple flowers carrying the weight of a painful memory and the quiet pride of a community that endured.

The initiative, organized under the name “A Pledge and Roses,” came to life around 3 p.m., as volunteers took to busy intersections and marketplaces, handing out flowers to drivers and to pedestrians moving through streets alive with children returning from school and people finishing their workday.

Its slogan — “Your memory and your sacrifices we revive… with a pledge and with roses. We continue.” — captured the spirit of the day, turning simple flowers into a heartfelt tribute and a quiet promise to honor the past while moving forward together.

The gesture created brief, intimate pauses in the flow of daily life: a hand extended, a rose offered, a moment of shared understanding between strangers. Organizers said the event was meant to remind residents not only of their return, but of the people who never made it back.

“We owe this to our fallen martyrs who defended our land,” one coordinator explained, watching children hold roses from car windows as parents nodded in acknowledgment. The sentiment carried the emotional weight of the anniversary—gratitude mixed with grief, remembrance intertwined with resilience.

In the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh, where several neighborhoods still bear the scars of last year’s bombings, elderly residents stopped to speak with volunteers about the night they fled and the day they finally came home. In Dahiyeh, young men and women who had helped shelter displaced families said the roses symbolized both healing and continuity—proof that even after fear, community roots deepen rather than wither.

The initiative included no formal program and no speeches. Instead, its strength came from its simplicity. A rose placed in a driver’s hand. A nod exchanged at a street corner. A reminder that beneath the routine of everyday life lies a shared story of loss, return and the determination to stand together.

For many, the flowers were not just a commemoration of the past year—they were a quiet promise that the memories of those lost and the strength of those who came back, will not fade. As the slogan echoed, it was a day carried by a pledge and by roses—a promise that continues.