Lebanese celebrate beginning of Ramadan

STORY: Lebanese celebrate beginning of Ramadan DATELINE: April 3, 2022 LENGTH: 00:02:05 LOCATION: Beirut CATEGORY: SOCIETY/CULTURE SHOTLIST: 1. various of the celebrations 2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): MARWAN PHARAON, Organizer 3. various of the celebrations STORYLINE: Hundreds of people on Saturday flocked to downtown Beirut to celebrate the beginning of the Holy month of Ramadan. A band comprised of children sang religious songs, catching the admiration of passersby who used their phones to take photos of the celebration. Marwan Pharaon, the organizer of the event, said that the celebration aims to bring happiness and hope to the people in Beirut upon the start of Ramadan after two years of quarantine forced by COVID-19. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): MARWAN PHARAON, Organizer "Since 2013, we organizes big festivals in Beirut to show that the capital is happy and it receives Ramadan with excitement and love. We were forced to stop in the past two years, but we are resuming this year to make people in Beirut happy amid