JEDDAH, 20 October 2006 — Candies and nuts are among the top-selling items toward the end of Ramadan. It is a traditional custom to give them to guests and children during the upcoming Eid season.
To meet the demand, many vendors open temporary stalls just to sell candies and nuts. During the last 10 days of Ramadan, such vendors make a small fortune with this short-lived business.
Treats have been a part of the Eid experience since time immemorial. Traditionally children used to knock on neighbor’s doors to receive candies and treats. Now with this habit fading away people buy the treats as a symbolic link to the festive season.
Jeddah’s downtown Balad has seen such stalls for as long as anyone can remember. Many people prefer to buy their Eid delicacies from Balad rather than from specialty shops on ritzy Tahliah Street — largely because of the atmosphere.
The downtown stalls sell a mixed variety of nuts, dried fruits and candies as well as modern imported candies and chocolates. Traditionalists, though, go for bags of hummosiah (a sweetened and condensed milk cake cut or hand-molded into candy-sized pieces), and loziah (chickpeas and almonds that are coated with colorful sugar coating).
But things may be changing. Abdulkarim Hadi, a Balad candy stall merchant, said that demand for Eid candies has significantly dropped over the years — along with, he says, the festive holiday spirit.
“There’s still a demand but compared to ten years ago it has dropped at least 50 percent,” Hadi said. “Even candies that were once exclusively made here in Jeddah are now imported,” he said. Many come from Syria and Lebanon. That is where 70-year-old Abu Sabeen, another candy merchant, now gets most of his.
Ahmad Al Faiz, a teacher buying candies from Balad, said that he used to come with his father 20 years ago to the same stall to buy his Eid treats. “Since those days I’ve never stopped the habit,” he said.
He noted that even though sometimes he buys certain types of chocolates from fancy places, he would always get his traditional candies from Balad.
“I don’t know if it’s the taste or the feeling, but buying candies from Balad has an appeal to it,” he said. Eid would not be the same.
