page_title: Kfarsghab
section_title: The emigration
hierarchical_section_title: Kfarsghab / History / The emigration
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of a Postcard of 1896
context_page_description: Kfarsghab is a village located in the Zgharta District in the North Governorate of Lebanon. It is situated in the Valley of Qadisha, which is considered a holy and spiritual place in Eastern Christianity The main religion of its residents is Maronite Catholicism.
  Kfarsghab is composed of two geographically separated settlements: Kfarsghab, a high mountain village, and Morh Kfarsghab, a plain village, respectively inhabited in summers and in winters. It is a typical organization of pastoral and agricultural Mediterranean communities where seasonal fixed transhumance is still practised.
  The Lebanese hailing from Kfarsghab number 20,000 worldwide. 95% of them live outside Lebanon, mainly in Australia and the United States.
context_section_description: Between 1850 and 1875, demographic pressure obliged the young men of Kfarsghab to join massively the monastic orders. It is estimated that 10% of the male adult population joined the monastic life during the 19th century. 
   But the economic difficulties of the silk industry, the political situation of the new Mutassarifiah regime of Mount Lebanon (1865–1915) and changing conditions of the monk orders pushed the people of Kfarsghab to find new economic outlets by emigrating massively from 1885  onwards to the United States and Australia. It is estimated that Kfarsghab lost during the last 15 years of this century 20% of its population.
  Emigration was halted by the First World War, only to resume massively from 1925. The French Mandate and the formation of the modern Lebanon in 1925 did not curve down emigration. The demographic weakening continued all along the 20th century, especially during the Lebanese Civil war (1975–1990). Today around 20,000 people around the world are related to Kfarsghab by their origin, only 1,000 of them are living in the village.
caption: Ehden & Kfarsghab seen from Bane in 1896
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