海角大神

The floors of this hospital are often smeared with聽blood. Every day, the horrors of Syria's war play out in the lobby, as聽men, women, and children wounded or killed in the fierce fighting that聽has raged between the regime and the rebels in this city for three聽months come into the hospital.

But on this night, the smears of blood were cleaned from the floor,聽and instead of wailing, there was dancing. For a few hours, the聽hospital put aside sorrow and weariness to celebrate the wedding of聽two of its staff.

Zakaria Mansour El Hajji and his wife-to-be, Bushra, met at the聽hospital two months ago, and two weeks ago became engaged. On Monday,聽they will be married in a village outside Aleppo. Saturday night, the聽groom and a group of doctors, nurses, and staff feasted, danced, and聽sang during a few hours of relative calm, bringing smiles and laughter聽to a place often filled with sadness.

"We can't forget our pain, but we have to make our happiness, and we聽will keep looking for our happiness," said hospital receptionist聽Hassan Maksuma, as the groom's friends stripped him of his street聽clothes and dressed him in a new suit, following tradition, behind the聽desk in the lobby. Usually, Mr. Maksuma sits behind that same desk,聽watching the wounded and the dead flow into the hospital. "The聽happiest moments are the ones we make happy," he said, quoting a聽proverb.

Outside, the sounds of war echoed in the dark streets. Inside,聽hospital employees, many dressed in scrubs and white coats, began the聽celebration by crowding around a meal of kofta, bread, salad, and聽fruit, laid out on blankets in the hallway right outside the one-room聽intensive care unit. Then the groom descended to the lobby amid聽ululations and a shower of celebratory foam droplets sprayed from a聽can. When his bachelor friends hid his new trousers, playing a prank聽that is common at grooms' parties here, he took the reception聽microphone, looking a bit embarrassed, and jokingly threatened to聽begin cursing them in Arabic, English, French, and Kurdish unless they聽returned his pants.

Mr. Hajji, a tall, slim young man, works as an administrative employee聽at the hospital. The bride Bushra, an engineer who began volunteering at the聽hospital as a nurse after the conflict began, was not present at the聽groom's party. Doctors have asked journalists not to print the name of聽the hospital because it is often targeted by regime shelling.聽Buildings all around the clinic, and the hospital's own top floors,聽are heavily damaged from the shelling.

Aleppo residents, and the hospital staff, are weary from a battle that聽has ravaged and divided the city, killed too many of its residents,聽and sent thousands of others fleeing to the countryside or neighboring聽countries. The hospital received five bodies earlier in the day. The聽day before, someone brought a body that had decayed for a month while聽residents were unable to retrieve it because of the fighting. Tonight,聽only a few, non-urgent cases made their way through the celebration in聽the lobby.

"We make joy from disaster," said Othman El Haj Othman, an emergency聽doctor dressed in his scrubs, his shoes covered with drops of dried聽blood, speaking loudly to be heard above the joyful singing. He paused聽to inspect the wrist of a boy who walked into the lobby seeking聽treatment. "We will continue our life. Nothing will stop us. We will聽try to build a better future for these kids," he says, gesturing to聽his small son, who craned forward to see the celebration.

The groom danced with his friends, and then they lifted him atop their聽shoulders. He held aloft two Kalashnikov rifles as they belted out聽traditional wedding songs mixed with chants demanding the end of the聽regime, made familiar from protests across the Arab world.

One rebel聽fighter who had joined the celebration headed outside to shoot聽celebratory bullets into the air, but those guarding the hospital聽stopped him. "It's good to see a wedding inside all of this war, isn't聽it?" said one man. Another picked up the microphone and began singing聽wedding songs. "Listen to your mother-in-law and you will be happy,"聽went the words to one. The men joined arms and danced in a circle as聽women filmed with their mobile phones. One man beat a drum and the聽crowd set down their small plastic cups of bright green sugary soda聽and Pepsi to clap to the beat.

"We want to make happiness amid the death," said Mr. Hajji as the聽party was winding down. "Thank God we can have a day like this, and聽have everyone happy around me," he said. "We have lost many people,聽and I'm happy to be able to make them happy tonight."