Tuesday, September 25, 2012

National Day Celebrations In Riyadh

The Kingdom of Saudi-Arabia celebrated its 82nd birthday on Sunday the 23rd of September. As usual, the streets were full of Saudis celebrating the National Day. In addition to everyone having Sunday off, King Abdullah had given an extra day off for government employees meaning many people got to enjoy a four day weekend which in Saudi-Arabia is normally Thursday and Friday.
 All the main streets and road were lined with Saudi flags. There must be literally tens of thousands of them. Wonder where they store them?
This year people had already began celebrating on Saturday and the streets flooded with cars flying Saudi flags and people hanging out of them. Tahlia street was fully packed with cars and young men ressed in the most creative outfits. Radio stations were playing patriotic songs and songs praising King Abdullah. Everything seemed to have turned green, including the Faisaliyah and Kingdom towers.
We went out on both evenings to see the celebrations. According to this Arab News article there would be celebrations in Kindy plaza at the Diplomatic Quarters where thousands of Saudi flags would be distributed and there would be a special program there. We live nearby and went to check it out, there was nothing there to our disappointment! Strangely the article also said malls such as Panorama and Hayat would have programs for kid, but in reality the malls remained closed on Sunday. I wonder how many people went all the way to these locations only to find out there was nothing there.
There were many other events around town though and we headed to check them out. There was a small festival area set up in the historical Diriyah area. We drove around the Wadi Hanifa and saw many families had set up fires and BBQ's around the wadi. The weather is finally cooling down and evenings in the wadi are very pleasant.
The Diriyah festival had some traditional dancing and music, poetry recitals, small handicraft market and camel rides.



I love how so many Saudi women relax and let go of their cultural restrictions in public on occasions such as National day. 

 A Saudi baba was showing how to make Arabic coffee by the fire.

Everyone was in high spirits and donning at least a Saudi flag or something green!

 At the festival area I was busy taking pictures of all the people who were requesting to be photographed. I could have stood there all night because people were literally lining up.
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My friend likes camels! I'm still too scared to get this close.
I love you! This is what some children came up to say :)
Please please take my picture too!
My daughter was scared of the coffee making baba. The first thing she said when he took her in his lap was "aiti!" which means mommy.
Meanwhile on the streets kids were hanging out of car windows, doors, roof tops and even sitting on top of the cars!

Older men enjoyed the fun in pimped up rides.
These boys better hurry before muttawa catches them!
And what would National Day be without a muttawa patrol? Here they are supervising on Tahlia street. 
My daughter was in on the fun too!
It was a very HABBY Saudi National Day!

18 comments:

Noor said...

Looks like you all had fun.

Anonymous said...

Nice pics!
Simone

Jeanette said...

Nice pictures! Looks like a fun time. Too bad the women weren't able to let their hair out if only for one day!

Anonymous said...

I'm from Greece ! I'm so curious about customs there ! I'm reading often your blog ! It's a totally different culture than western one ! Thanks for your time ! I wish all the best for you and your family !
To be honest, I doubt if I could live there !
Geià sou !
:)

Bourne69 said...

Great Post Layla ! Could u please share more pictures of ur beautiful daughter ? :)

annie said...

Perhaps you should have become "green abaya" for a day!!

Annie

Anonymous said...

Creepy :S

Bourne69 said...

Creepy ? Really ?

Sulai said...

check this out layla.....taped on national day
www.youtube.com/rrzQh4UIPOM

Layla said...

Hey everyone sorry for not responding earlier, been terribly busy the last few days, thanks for the comments!
I rather not post lots of pics of my daughter :)

Unknown said...

Hey, great article and nice pictures! I was born on the 23rd September <3

But it just doesn't feel right for Saudi flags which has Allah's name in it to be used in such away as to be worn like that...

Layla said...

Bourne69 you can see some on the Blue Abaya Facebook page click on the link on the top of this page :)

Layla said...

Hi Khawla! Thanks and Happy birthday to you!
Yes you have a point there! In Finland we are actually quite specific about the Finnish flags and it's respected a lot. Rarely you will see people "abusing" them :)

Anonymous said...

Salam Laylah
Missing your regular posts abut interesting and thought provoking topics..it seems the blogging is slowing down. Looking forward to reading some more in the future.
Thanks
Raya

راوية said...

(Habby) LOOOOL! My husband has lived 5 years in USA and still cannot differentiate between the P and B. I guess it is Saudi thing.
Your daughter looks beautiful in her jalabia Mashallah!

Anonymous said...

What a lovely post, I enjoyed looking at all the pictures. I also enjoyed my Sunday off, which I celebrated by having an early morning family picnic and then a super long nap :) So it's nice to see what everyone else was up to.
NB - I rexpect and agree with your decision to keep photos of your daughter to a minimum.
Sorry to post as anonymous - I dont have a google, AIM etc account

Anonymous said...

As always I love the amount of thought, time, and energy goes into your work Laylah. Great pictures, makes me miss my national days in Riyadh and Jeddah (Jeddah is much more fun than Riyadh on the National Day, and most other days).

Layla said...

alexofarabia-thank you so much and I agree about Jeddah :)