Ramadan 2015, Day 19 – Preparations for Eid

So today I walked into a Qatari colleague’s office and saw something unusual on his desk that really caught my eye . . .

Stacks and stacks of cash! There must have been 30-40,000 riyal on his desk (around $10,000). All of it newly-minted bills delivered from the bank. It is a sure sign that Eid is coming soon.

Eid al-Fitr (translates as "breaking of the fast") is the celebration to mark the end of Ramadan, typically 29 days after Ramadan has started. Eid al-Fitr is one of the most important holidays in the Islamic calendar and it is celebrated by every Muslim. In Qatar many businesses give three business days as holiday for Eid.

Eid celebrations involve meeting with family and friends and enjoying a large meal or feast. Because of the symbolism of no longer having to fast is actually prescribed in a well-accepted hadith that a Muslim cannot fast on the first day of Eid, thus should partake in the Eid meals. Generosity and friendship are important aspects of Eid, and people try to dress in clean clothes for the festivities, which nowadays means people buy new clothes for the holiday. This is one of the busiest times for tailors in Doha as they are busy making thobes, abayas, dresses, and other garments for customers.

In keeping with the theme of generosity in Qatar it is traditional to give gifts of money to children, and keeping with the theme of things being new and clean that means people prefer giving out brand new money, hence the stack of fresh bills on my colleague’s desk. The money is Eid gifts for relatives and children (lucky kids!)

Having stacks of fresh money ready for Eid is pretty standard in Qatar and during Ramadan the Central Bank prints millions and millions of new riyal in preparation for the holiday as many Qatari’s place requests with banks for new bills. My colleague was not the only one getting stacks of money today, I saw a couple of other colleagues with small shopping bags containing their Eid money. Good thing Qatar has such a low crime rate, I'd be really nervous even going straight home with that much cash.

There’s still about 10 days to go before Eid but it appears preparations for the holiday are already underway.

Ramadan 2015, Day 17 – Greece

No, I’m not going on vacation there. With nothing much happening this weekend Ramadan-wise, except for going to the office to do some work, I spent time monitoring the craziness that is happening in Greece. It’s difficult not to follow it as it’s been dominating the papers the last few weeks.

Five years of loans later and Greece is no better off than it was before. The loans are of such size that it does not appear realistic for the country to be able to manage the interest payments while keeping the economy growing. 330 billion Euro is a lot of money for a country of 11 million people given the state of their economy. 25% unemployment? Yikes!

I feel sorry for the Greek people. In the past they voted in Governments who heavily overspent and then covered up the true state of their finances from the EU and the people. When you elect a Government a person trusts that they will at least show some level of fiscal responsibility. How was your average Greek to know and understand what those Governments were doing? Even the EU didn’t know.

The new Government, Syriza, was not responsible for the economic mess Greece developed over the last 20 years, but were elected on a platform that they would deal with the problem in a new way – rejecting further austerity and renegotiating the loans. The lenders want more austerity, which would save the Government money to use to repay the loans. Syriza’s counterargument is that further austerity would weaken the economy even more, cause more job losses, and thus the Government will receive less revenue over time so will be right back to where we are now – only with more problems.

To be fair Greece has not entirely done what it should have over the last five years. It did not crack down on all the tax-dodging, did not do major cuts in areas like military spending, and the planned privatization of major industries didn’t happen (which could have raised 40-50b). This is not Syriza’s fault, they’ve only been in power for 5-6 months, but I could see why the lenders are weary of more promises by Greek Government(s).

Ultimately it’s the people who are suffering. Things weren’t great before but now? 60 euro a day withdrawal limits (if the ATM has a money, as many quickly run out), crowds of elderly crushing against banks in order to get their pension money, which is likely their only income so they need it to survive, factories and businesses shutting down, it’s a disaster. They don’t deserve this. The Government(s) who got them into this mess deserve some sort of punishment (What happened to them anyway? Was anyone ever arrested for this? For all the misery they’ve caused someone should be in jail.)

The EU and the other lenders really need to look past the sins of the Governments and focus on helping the people. That means taking the high-road, swallowing pride, forgiving Syriza for its Drama-Queen excesses (Syriza really doesn’t do itself any favours calling its lenders “terrorists” and doing other petulant antics as it does not endear them to the rest of the EU and encourages people to take a “punish” stance), and work out ways to get Greece out of this mess so as to help the people. Less talk of how Greece is going to pay you back and more trying to figure out a way to solve the issues. Greece is not going to find a way out of this on their own, and they shouldn’t have to, as they are part of a Union, the EU, so everyone should be trying to help instead of punish (well, except for those previous Governments, feel free to arrest them).

Taking the high-road could be done regardless of how the vote goes today and I hope the powers-that-be consider it.

Ramadan 2015, Day 14 – Garangao

I went to Katara to check out the Garangao celebrations. Katara holds an event every year where kids get to walk through Katara collecting nuts and treats at various places.

Katara had set up a nice light display for Ramadan, putting stars and other shapes on the hills.

When I went in to Katara it was crowded, far moreso than the previous year. It looks like every year the event gets more popular.

When I got down to the Corniche area, there were a lot of people getting their Garangao bags to start the walk.

They let people through in small groups of a few dozen so that it spreads out and you don’t have hundreds of people at one station.

Security only lets families on the route and that’s fine I suppose. Many children were dressed up but I didn’t want to be intrusive and take close-up pictures. In this picture of the Corniche you can see a bit in the distance two girls in colourful dresses. Girls typically dress up in traditional colourful dresses while boys wear a thobe.

There was also a small bazaar set up which had a number of shops selling traditional items and an area with a storyteller (at least I think he’s a storyteller, I can’t make out what the sign says).

As Katara was so crowded the cafes were doing brisk business.

I later stopped by City Centre and they too had some Garangao events.

I hope the Katara event went well. There were a lot of people but it looked like organizers had the crowd under control.

Ramadan 2015, Day 13 – Arabic Pancakes

Every Ramadan a well-known bakery in Doha sets up a small tented area in front of the shop.

It’s to make kataif (ka-ta-if), also known as atayif, a traditional Arabic pancake. They’ve set up a huge grill outside to make them.

It was needed too as the place was pretty busy with people pulling up to buy kataif for iftar.

Here’s what I got, all of this cost QAR 20 (around US$5.40).

Unlike a North American pancake you only grill one side, the batter should be light enough that the other side can cook through all the bubbles/holes formed while the one side cooks, it makes it easier to stick it together. Most people then put a filling on the ungrilled side, such as cheese or a sweet filling and stick the kataif together, at which point it looks somewhat like a perogi. It might be cooked more afterwards but not always.

But you can also eat them like you would eat pancakes, and I have just the thing for them:

The perfect thing for a Canada Day iftar. Happy Canada Day everyone!

Ramadan 2015, Day 11 – Garangao Preparation and Another Sohour

In Qatar the 14th night of Ramadan is a holiday called Garangao, where children dress up in traditional clothes and go door-to-door singing songs. The kids then receive candies and nuts from the household. It’s has some similarities to Halloween in North America except the kids do not dress up in costumes and Garangao does not have any association with spooky themes like witches, ghosts and so forth.

So Souq Waqif has been busy with Qataris shopping at the candy stores, stocking up for Garangao.

Typically people give the children handfuls of small candies and nuts so you need a lot of supplies. These wheelbarrows are full of Garangao shopping.

Nowadays Doha is a big city so many kids go to organized Garangao activities rather than wander the neighbourhood going door-to-door. I’ll try to get out to one if I can.


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Last night was another sohour buffet, this time at the W Hotel.

They had a great selection of sushi so right off the bat I was happy. And they had traditional Turkish ice cream (dondurma), a thick, gummy ice cream. It’s fantastic stuff. In the end I ate too much as usual but the food was great. There was no way to even try it all.

So another night where I did not eat a 3am meal. Too stuffed from the W.

Ramadan 2015, Day 10 – More Mall Walking (with Gulf Mall update)

[latest update on Gulf Mall is August 14th, you can find it here]


Last week I said I’d try to avoid doing daytime mall walking on the weekends because I was feeling a little lightheaded yet here I was on Saturday doing the same thing. It’s really just to distract myself, it is a real struggle just to sit at home all day and not reach into a cupboard for a snack, you have to keep yourself busy. So I decided to go to Gulf Mall and Ezdan Mall in the afternoon and walk around, see if anything new has opened at Gulf Mall.

As it was the afternoon some shops were open but not any restaurants of course. Lulu Hypermarket across the street was packed with shoppers buying groceries.

In Gulf Mall it looks like more places at the food court are open or about to open, such as the KFC and Fatburger.

While IHOP looked ready it had a work order pasted on the door, I guess it’ll still be a little longer – I’m guessing after Ramadan. [August 14 update, still not open]

Shake Shack and the Lei Wei (P.F. Chang brand) were not even close to opening.

Over at Ezdan Mall they take Ramadan a bit more seriously than other malls. They had an area prepared for what I think were religious lectures (with convenient barriers separating the men’s and ladies seating.

And a separate kids area being prepared for Garangao next week.

After that it was back to the Ramadan Cannon where I met up with some friends, I brought dates, crackers, nuts and water for iftar, they brought some shwarmas, so it was win-win all around.

Ramadan 2015, Day 9 - Ramadan Car Parade

Every day during Ramadan around 5pm people get in their cars and do an impromptu parade along the Corniche (near West Bay). I think it stems from bored people cruising around in cars waiting for iftar time and it's now become an event where lots of Qataris show off their new cars, vintage cars, or just weird vehicles.

Many people go to the Corniche with cameras to take pictures.

Expensive cars

Colourful cars

Vintage cars

Unusual cars (for Qatar anyway)

Motorcycles and scooters

Sometimes groups with the same type of car would get together and go down the road slowly or form a line

In times past matte paint jobs were in, this year black is in vogue

The police try to crack down on kids hanging out of the vehicles but old habits die hard.

You should be able to catch the Corniche Car Show every day during Ramadan from around 4:30-6:00.