JEDDAH, 25 September 2007 — The city celebrated yesterday the Kingdom’s National Day with locals and residents turning out with miniature Saudi flags, T-shirts with the picture of King Abdullah and cars that had been covered with green, the color of the Saudi flag.
Main roads were decorated with lights and signboards. The Tahlia Street and Corniche side were filled with celebrating youths. Hundreds of police had been deployed in the areas inundated with revelers (mostly young Saudi men), but they stood by doing their best to maintain smooth traffic flow.
“They stopped me because my car was green,” said a young Saudi who had been confronted by a motorcycle cop.
Police appeared to be giving out citations for vehicles painted green, but otherwise the youths were allowed to continue on their way. Traffic was the thickest around the city center and the Tahlia Street shopping district.
The Naseef House in the heart of the Old City was the venue for cultural events that had been planned for the historic center, because it was the house that had hosted King Abdul Aziz when he first arrived in Jeddah, said Sami Nawwar, head of the tourism and culture department at the municipality. The house was fully decorated and prepared to exhibit many belongings of the Kingdom’s founder and various documentations and historical pictures about the beginning and growth of the nation.
“This year’s National Day celebration was adaptive to the spirituality of the holy month,” Nawwar said, explaining that instead of musical groups and traditional dances they made shows with more spiritual and religious appeal.
The show started at the main dais of the Naseef House where hundreds of curious onlookers gathered with flags and some with painted hair to witness the show.
The Jassees, traditional vocalist, started singing poetry about King Abdul Aziz in the Hijazi (Western Saudi Arabian) musical scale. The crowd was highly responsive as they were cheering and repeating parts of the poet’s words.
A number of young boys dressed up in traditional Hijazi and Najdi costumes read out the biography of King Abdul Aziz and the history of the country’s unification. Behind the young boys was a big projector screen that was displaying various images of the country.
Nawwar said his department has prepared a number of traditional houses to host cultural activities and shows. Visitors would surely have a glimpse of how life was in the past, he said.
There are other cultural shows around the city like in Ubrug Al-Rigama, east of the expressway, and Corniche but the most important one is the Balad-based celebrations because it is the place where the founder of the Kingdom lived.
He said that these shows and exhibitions would continue for four days to give a chance for as many people as possible to enjoy the history and culture of the country.
