The National Day is widely celebrated across the Kingdom with Saudi youths wearing green clothes, painting their faces green, decorating their cars with Saudi flags, driving fast and dancing on streets.
However, last year's celebrations were blighted with violence and the arrests of 225 young Saudis following riots across the Kingdom. In Alkhobar, 12 teenagers involved in a rampage on the Corniche were given 30 lashes in a public flogging. The youngsters broke the doors and windows of more than 13 shops, damaging goods inside.
As a result, people across the Kingdom were left shocked and many welcomed the lashings, adding that more needs to be done to avoid a recurrence of last year's incidents.
"Youths in Saudi Arabia often break social and Islamic rules because they like to show off. Another reason for this is that they struggle to commit themselves to following systems and rules. Many violations are caused by youths who are not mature. They want to attract attention. Sometimes they imitate other societies," said Mansour bin Askar, an Islamic sociology professor at Riyadh's King Saud University.
"People in the Kingdom refuse to follow rules. They want to be different and celebrate festivals differently. There has been a trend of people celebrating occasions in a bad way for many years and changing this is difficult," he said.
"Saudi National Day isn't the only thing that has become tough. It's the same during Eid, the summer vacations, the World Cup and after the Saudi League finals. The main problem is the fact that people are not prepared to follow systems and respect rules," he added.
"Most of the youths involved in such behavior were unemployed. They attacked shops to take revenge at the owners. They sometimes attack expatriates because they feel expatriates have better job opportunities," said Mansour. "This is particularly the case since Saudi youths have a particular desire to express themselves on National Day," he added.
As a result of last year's disturbances, Jeddah police are making special preparations and calling on parents to educate their teenage sons. "We've noticed that people celebrating National Day tend to show off and ignore traffic rules. They have no concern for people's safety and the damage they cause to the Kingdom’s image," said Col. Misfer Al-Juaid, spokesman for the Jeddah police.
"Families are urged to educate their sons on how to be responsible and teach them how to celebrate such occasions safely. We will control traffic and police officers will be deployed everywhere. We will target areas where youths are prone to gathering. We urge youths to respect the law or they will be punished. There will be a large number of police officers at hand, including many in plain clothes," he said.
He also called on parents not to allow their children to drive unless they are with their families.
