Festival Honors Fallen Lookouts With Song, Food, and Shared Grief
Translated & summarized from Maariv by baba
The TEA TIME festival is being held for the third time to honor 18 fallen lookouts from Nahal Oz, inspired by their own Friday ritual of food and music. Mothers Sharon Eshel and Gili Leibovich are organizing the event to commemorate their daughters, Roni Eshel and Yael Leibovich, and to find solace through shared grief and celebration. The festival aims to keep the memory of the young women alive by celebrating their lives and their spirit of togetherness, providing a space for joy amidst sorrow.
The story in 6 lines · by baba
- The TEA TIME festival honors 18 fallen lookouts from Nahal Oz, inspired by their own Friday food and music rituals.
- Mothers Sharon Eshel and Gili Leibovich are organizing the third annual festival to commemorate their daughters.
- The festival provides a space for bereaved families to sing, dance, and find joy amidst their grief.
- The lookouts' tradition involved cooking and playing music, which they saw as universal human languages.
- The event, named 'Their Voice,' aims to continue amplifying the warnings the lookouts issued.
- The festival celebrates the lives of the fallen and their legacy of togetherness.
The TEA TIME festival is being held for the third time to commemorate the 18 lookouts and combatants who fell at Nahal Oz, inspired by a Friday ritual they held. The mothers of Roni Eshel and Yael Leibovich, two of the fallen, shared their memories and ongoing grief.
The lookouts created a tradition of preparing food and playing music together on Friday afternoons in their small kitchen, calling it "TEA TIME." This ritual served as a vital outlet and a way to connect, even amidst the high-pressure environment of their post. Sharon Eshel, Roni's mother, recalled Roni asking for recipes for their Friday gatherings. She noted that the idea for a joyful commemoration came from Gili Leibovich, Yael's mother, during the shiva, though the full impact of the loss was not yet understood.
Eshel described the initial difficulty in reconciling singing and joy with her daughter's death, but found solace in the shared experience with other bereaved parents. She explained that the music helps process the pain and, according to her communications with Roni, banishes depression. The festival provides a "legitimacy" to express joy through song and dance, even amidst profound sorrow.
Leibovich stated that the mothers are continuing the "shift" of their daughters, finding strength in their collective mourning. She acknowledged the emotional toll of organizing the festival while also dealing with private commemorations, but emphasized that this is their way of coping and moving forward. The event aims to celebrate the lives of the fallen, remembering them with music, graffiti, and good food, embodying the "togetherness" they represented.
Both mothers emphasized that time does not heal the pain, and the fear of forgetting their daughters' voices and scents is growing. Leibovich mentioned their organization is named "Their Voice" to continue amplifying the warnings the lookouts issued before the October 7th attack. The festival, held days before elections, is intended as a unifying event, reflecting the lookouts' legacy of togetherness across societal divides.
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