This coming weekend, February 27-28, will see the final days of Darom BaLev (South at Heart), the temporarily renamed celebration of the red anemone flowers that carpet the country’s south each winter.

In the past, each February saw the Gaza envelope region celebrate Darom Adom (Red South), when the scarlet wildflowers covered the area’s fields and forests. That name has now taken on a different, unintended connotation in the wake of the deadly October 7, 2023, attack, in which some 1,200 people were slaughtered and 251 taken captive into Gaza, all from the nearby communities.

“We all know that it’s Darom Adom even though we called it something else,” said Doron Ashtan Nachmani, CEO of the Shikma-Bsor Tourism Association that organizes the event.

“Next year, we hope to go back to that name. This year was a little too soon,” she said.

The month-long event was canceled in 2024. In 2025, it was temporarily given its new name.

Instead of the usual tours, walks, markets, culinary events, and bike races, 2025 saw a run on behalf of the hostages who were still in Gaza and a walk to remember those whose lives were lost.

This year, with all the hostages, living and dead, back home and a fragile ceasefire in place, the organizers, including co-sponsors Bank Hapoalim and Keren Kayemet LeIsrael – Jewish National Fund, decided to celebrate the festival on a somewhat more normal basis.

“Ran Gvili’s body was returned the day before the festival began, and it all felt very symbolic,” said Ashtan Nachmani, referring to the fallen police officer who was the final hostage returned.

On January 30, museums and heritage sites were opened, hot air balloons were readied, workshops, fruit-picking, and horseback riding were all prepared, as was the annual Anemone Race.

Yaki Sagi and his Lalush Bakery in Kibbutz Be’eri prepared picnic baskets as in previous years of Darom Adom, with red-and-white checked tablecloths for setting out savory vegetable pies, salads, and dips, a cheese plate from Be’eri Dairy, as well as flaky apple strudel and chocolate babka.

“It felt very emotional to take part this year,” said Sagi, a member of Kibbutz Be’eri. “I feel like people are happier, the hostages are home, and it’s a period when you have to try to lift your head and look ahead and hope for a better future.”

Customers came from all over the country, said Sagi, offering a sense of unity, happiness, and caring for the residents of the south.

It’s difficult to estimate the number of visitors to the region over the last month, given the area’s size, but Ashtan Nachmani said she believed some 200,000 people had visited over the last four weeks — compared to some 300,000 during the previous years of Darom Adom.

“During the last two years, we did whatever we could to just hold everyone together,” she said. “This year, however, we’re doing everything we can to enjoy the flowers, after working hard on Darom BaLev and not being sure what would happen, or if people would come, and having so much rain in January that the flowers all came out this time.”

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