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Christmas and Thanksgiving in the Middle East You might think that no one in Qatar knows or cares about the American holiday of Thanksgiving, but you would be wrong because Thanksgiving is apparently becoming something of a worldwide holiday. I realized this when I went shopping a few weeks ago, in mid-November, and saw a banner over the frozen foods section saying “Celebrate Thanksgiving” near a bin of frozen turkeys that were on sale. Normally you can’t find turkeys, even the frozen kind, in Qatar but apparently you can buy turkeys here during the last few weeks of November. And strangely enough, I saw some Indian families buying frozen turkeys (as I did, of course).
Not only did I buy a frozen turkey last week, but I also bought canned cranberries and mashed potatoes. I even found a few boxes of stuffing sitting on the grocery shelves. Then I whipped up a big Thanksgiving feast for Arul, my Indian roommate from San Jose, and myself. I also invited Helen, a CPO co-worker from the U.K. who’s in Qatar temporarily helping me with some mapping work, over to our apartment. I explained to her the American holiday of Thanksgiving and why Americans have to eat turkey on that special day. Unfortunately there weren’t any football games to watch on TV, giving the Arab/British channels here. There was British “football,” of course, also known as soccer, but it wasn’t the same as watching my favorite team, the Detroit Lions, lose badly – which, of course, is another favorite American Thanksgiving tradition.
Helen wanted to know how the American holiday of Thanksgiving started, so while offering her a large platter of turkey, I told her about the Pilgrims and the Mayflower. She was even more intrigued with how you can mix bland ingredients like cream of mushroom soup and green beans together to create the delicious Thanksgiving dish that Americans call “Green Bean Casserole.” I gave her the recipe so she could take it with her back to London.
Christmas is another holiday that you might think is non-existent here in the Muslim country of Qatar, but again, you would be wrong. In fact, you would be really wrong. Many hotel lobbies here are decked out with Christmas trees and trimmings each December and Carrefour starts selling Christmas items not in late November, like what happens in the U.S., but in mid-October. By November, an entire section of Carrefour is packed with everything Christmasy, including some of the most elaborate artificial trees I’ve ever seen. I bought a beautiful four-foot Christmas tree last December and put it up in my room again last week, along with Christmas ornaments that I also bought here, not having brought any from home.
The Christmas decorations, however, leave something to be desired because they were made in China and the concept of Christmas was apparently lost in translation. The classic Christmas colors are red and green, of course, but many of the ornaments I bought here are, strangely enough, brown. That includes a stuffed elf in brown garb, as well as a brown wreath (have you ever seen a brown wreath?) And the Christmas tree ornaments that I bought at Carrefour also puzzled me. As I write this, my tree is decorated with, among other things, a plastic apple (apples for Christmas?), a large mushroom (?), and a stuffed, four-inch long ornament of a chicken. Few people realize this, but along with bringing baby Jesus the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, the three magi also brought him the famous Christmas Chicken. This is what happens when you buy Christmas ornaments made in China, I guess. I laugh every time I look at all the crazy and inappropriate ornaments that decorate my little tree.
Speaking of strange things at holidays, last summer we had an “instant national holiday.” The previous Emir (i.e., leader) of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, suddenly stepped down in June after ruling here for almost 20 years and gave the reins (or “reigns”) to his 32-year old son, Tamim. It was, notably, the first peaceful transfer of power for any country in the Middle East. The news was posted that evening at 8 p.m. along with a decree that the next day would be a national holiday, to honor the new leader. My roommate at Asas mentioned it to me, that we didn’t have to go into work the next day. I didn’t believe him at first, but then I checked the local news websites. Gosh, I wish we had some of these “instant holidays” back in the U.S.!
There was another strange “holiday” situation last winter. Qatar’s National Day, which is something like the Fourth of July in the U.S., is held on December 18 each year to celebrate the day in 1878 when the country was unified under a single leader. National Day is usually a paid holiday in Qatar, but last year December 18 fell on a Friday, which is during the weekend. If that sort of thing happens in the U.S., the paid holiday is celebrated on the following Monday, but there was no announcement about any sort of day off in association with Qatar’s National Day. For weeks before the holiday, people all over Qatar wondered, “Will we have Thursday off?” and yet no official announcement was made.
Finally, on Wednesday, the Emir announced that, yes, everyone will have the next day off. So once again, we had an “instant holiday.” The announcement could’ve easily been made weeks beforehand so that people could make plans, but I guess the Emir didn’t want everyone to leave the country on National Day. I guess if I ran a country, I’d feel the same way. Still, it was strange to get an email late on Wednesday afternoon from the Emir saying that everyone had the next day off. This idea of flexible holidays, like National Days or with Ramadan, take some getting used to, like everything else here.
Above left: I love my little tree. The decorations are goofy and make me laugh. Above right: I even love my brown-hatted elf that sits proudly on my nightstand.
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