Nothing new in the lifestyles of people living in the Holy Land whether it was 4000 years ago in Biblical times or today.

Obviously Biblical people didn’t always wear sandals and cotton or linen tunics. Elijah in fact wore a hairy mantel a.k.a. a fur coat.

The first serious winter storm began Friday, December 10, 2010, dropping much-needed rain on the north but so far leaving Jerusalem with only a trace of precipitation and bringing blinding sandstorms to the northern Negev and the capital city.

Heavy rain and fierce winds pummelled countries across the Middle East on Sunday, December 12, 2010. killing a woman in Lebanon, sinking a ship off Israel’s coast and prompting Egypt to close its largest Mediterranean port.

It whipped up sand storms in Egypt and Jordan, while in the Syrian capital of Damascus, snow blanketed the streets for first time this winter. Schools sent students home early and children ventured outside to play. Heavy rain and strong winds battered cities along the Mediterranean coast. Syrian authorities closed their main port of Tartous.

Egypt shut down the port of Alexandria, the country’s largest, as well as another in Nuweiba. Authorities stated steady rain appeared to play a role in the collapse of a six-story textile factory in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria. One person was killed, and as many as 40 people were trapped under the rubble, a security official stated, warning that the casualty figure could rise.

In Jordan, the Weather Department urged citizens to avoid valleys because of the threat of flash floods. Police stated dust-laden winds reaching up to 55 miles (90 kilometres) per hour obscured road visibility and forced the closure of major highways in the eastern desert linking Jordan with neighbouring Iraq and southern roads leading to the ancient city of Petra, a major tourist attraction.

A police statement said low visibility caused a 10-car pileup in a district south of the capital Amman, which left 16 people injured. Amman airport reported up to two-hour delays in domestic and international flights as a result of the dust storm.

In Lebanon, heavy rains flooded the streets in Beirut and snow forced some road closures in remote mountain towns. A woman died Saturday night when an uprooted tree fell on her car in the northern port city of Tripoli.

The storm also caused delays in incoming and outgoing flights from Beirut airport and heavily damaged four small training planes parked on the tarmac, flipping some and ramming others into a nearby electricity pole on Saturday. The storm, which caused temperatures to plunge to below freezing in some places, ended weeks of unseasonably warm and dry weather across the region that caused dozens of forest fires in Lebanon and helped feed a massive blaze in Israel that destroyed thousands of hectares of forest.

Off the Israeli coast, a Moldovan cargo ship sunk in stormy weather Sunday about 7 miles (11 kilometres) near the port city of Ashdod. The Moldovan vessel, carrying more than 3,000 tons of metal, was headed towards Ashdod when the ship‘s captain reported water entering the ship, which was rocked by 30-foot high waves in gale force winds of more than 100 kilometers (65 miles) an hour.

The Israeli Navy and Air Force rescued a crew of 11 Ukrainians whose ship began sinking in a savage winter storm Sunday morning on the Mediterranean Sea eight miles west off the Israeli port of Ashdod. An official from Israel’s shipping and ports authority, Yigal Maor, stated the vessel’s 11-member crew scrambled onto lifeboats and were helped by a nearby Taiwanese ship. Some of the crew had jumped into the sea, but no one required medical care.

A Turkish ship also is waiting for help after reporting that it is running out of fuel.

Elsewhere in Israel, rain and hail battered the country while strong winds toppled trees and traffic lights, snarling traffic, flooding streets and knocking out electricity to hundreds of homes. Local media reported that a pier at the ancient port city of Caesarea collapsed, a breakfront at another beach cracked and towering waves washed over the shore of Eilat, a desert resort.

The strong winds broke windows throughout the country and ripped hundreds of trees from their roots, which fell in the street and damaged vehicles. In Tel Aviv, a pier was wrecked, and the heavy winds and rain destroyed several stores and restaurants. Thousands of residents of metropolitan Tel Aviv were temporarily without electricity because of falling branches.

Exodus and Leviticus provide the detailed account of garments for men and women. There are specific instructions for the Levite priests in the Temple service.

The Bible covers a time span of several thousand years, but the type of clothing worn by most Jewish people during that time did not change much. Styles seem to have been influenced by both the simplicity of the Egyptians and the flamboyance of the Persians. The most common garment, worn by both women and men, was a woven four cornered tunic with fringes. Clothing in ancient Israel was usually woollen fabric or linen made from flax; and cotton all of which were either dyed or left in its natural color.

Women in the Bible also wore silks (Proverbs 31:22), cotton fabrics as well as fine linens (Proverbs 31:24). Cottons were somewhat sheer such as cotton gauze. Women in the Bible are recorded as having undergarments of scarlet or purple (Proverbs 31:21-22) and colourful, designs and needlework (Proverbs 31:22). One of the things that the Bible is very clear on, is that male and female fashions be distinctly different, (Deuteronomy 22:5).

Both women and men wore the equivalent of underwear in the style of pants. The Bible encouraged breast supports and enhancements, or corset-like undergarments (Song of Solomon 8:8-10). Underwear have been depicted on the tombs in Egypt which show that some kind of belt with a strip of cloth between the legs was the typical attire of Egyptian slavegirls and men.

Both men and married women wore a head covering. Rebecca used it to hide her face when she first met Isaac (Genesis 24:65). Sarah’s beauty was obviously visible to those around her (Genesis 12). Rebecca was not veiled when she was drawing water from the spring (Genesis 24:16).

Women were largely responsible for production of clothing in all stages of manufacture. They shared responsibility for tending the animals in the flock; sorted and carded the wool after the goats and sheep had been shorn; spun the wool into lengths and wove fabric using portable looms; grew and harvested flax for linen, dried the flax; carded and spun the flax into either fine or coarse linen strips. Linen produced could be woven finer than silk.

Prepared dyes of various colors: shellfish or plants, such as flowers, myrtle etc; fruits such as pomegranate, grapes, saffron yellow, alazarin red etc. hence the women used various dyes to get a range of colors for the family’s clothing.

Everyone wore some type of jewellery, including children. Women wore earrings, armlets, bracelets, anklets and beaded necklaces. They wore jewelled or beaded collars, necklaces, pendants made of gold, silver, and inlaid with semi-precious stones such as turquoise, lapis lazuli, carnelian amethyst, garnet, jasper, onyx etc. and other designs crafted from copper, wood, leather etc..

In the summer months clothing styles were chosen for comfort in a hot dry climate, therefore clothes were made of linens ranging from coarse to fine texture and cottons. Women wore straight fitting dresses or elaborate flowing skirts and wrapped tops. Most people wore sandals made of leather, or hemp, papyrus or palm-fibre or woven materials.

Fortunately the compulsory Biblical festivals and High Holy days occurred during the warmer months whereby people could travel to Jerusalem for the Temple Services. Tax collectors and census takers also accommodated the population during this time.

The Holy Land in the winter has always had its share of snow storms from the Golan all the way south past Hevron and Bethlehem. Mount Hermon today has a ski resort and Herodian can bee seen covered with snow in winter months. When we read that red scarlet sins can become white as snow, common sense says the people of the Bible knew what snow was.

When we read about Elijah’s hairy mantel, we can assume that it was probably a goat skin coat, He did after all live in northern Israel and in a mountainous cave. Hence winter fashions in the Biblical Holy Land required people to wear clothing made from wools, leather, sheep skin and certainly layers to keep warm.

Footwear would have been designed out of inverted sheep skin with the wool inside for warmth (sheep skin boots). Cloaks or coats that were long and with hoods were an absolute necessity as would have been knitted socks. The miracle of Hanukah has even greater significance since it occurred during the winter months.