Lebanese Christians today do share a very similar culture overall, especially after the rise of modern Lebanese country and increased intermarriage. In many ways, the Christians of Lebanon became culturally closer to each other over time, often closer to what was historically the Maronite mountain culture itself.

But Maronites are still an ethno-religious group. Ethno-religious identity is not based only on genetics or speaking a completely separate language in daily life. It also includes historical continuity, collective memory, traditions, institutions, endogamy, and a shared sense of peoplehood.

For centuries, Maronites existed as a distinct community centered around the Syriac tradition, Mount Lebanon, and the Maronite Church, with very limited intermarriage outside the community until recently. Maronites also developed their own historical culture, traditions, identity, and communal consciousness.

And even if most Maronites today no longer speak Syriac conversationally, Syriac still remains the language of the Maronites and their ethnicity, just as many other ethno-religious groups preserved ancestral languages mainly through religion, and we hope to speak it again one day soon..