Isam Al Sayed
‘My earliest memories of National Day are from when I was a child. We were in Al Ain – where I was born – and we used to go visit Sheikh Zayed, the founder of this country. He was also from Al Ain and he would meet and greet the people at his palace on special occasions. He used to do this twice a year, on National Day and at Eid, but there were always fewer people on National Day so we used to go then. I would always pester my father and my mother – I would say “I want to shake Sheikh Zayed’s hand”. So we would go to the palace. We did this every year for three or four years.
‘Sometimes it would be the palace in Al Ain, sometimes Abu Dhabi. There wouldn’t be thousands of people, just a few hundred. This was around the mid-1980s. Anyone can go, so long as you’re a national. You’re not invited; the idea is just to turn up. It was just open for locals to come and greet the Sheikh. This is what I liked about it. Nobody would stop you at the gate and say, for example, “Let me check your pass or wait there”. There was nothing like this. We would just walk in.
‘Once inside, we would stand there for a couple of hours waiting in a very long queue. Everyone there was waiting for a chance to meet Sheikh Zayed and shake him by the hand. I remember there was a lot of security, a lot of personal guards surrounding him and the room was very big. It was a like a large salon and he would receive each person one at a time. He would be standing not sitting, though, and behind him I remember seeing some large pictures of Sheikh Zayed riding a horse. In turn, each person would be escorted up to him to shake his hand.
‘There is nothing like this anywhere else in the world. I haven’t been for a long time, though. My father, he used to take us to the Sheikhs, but he is getting older now and we are all so busy.’
Sara Al Shikar
‘Women wear our traditional costume on National Day. They call it the thov. It’s like a red dress with embroidery known as talli. There is a national dress for Emirati men, it’s called kandoura – this is Emirati clothing. It is both for the men and women and it’s not a dishdasha; that is something Kuwaitis and Bahrainis might wear, but not us.
On National Day it is traditional, particularly amongst young girls of 15 or younger, to perform a dance. They put their head down and move left and right, swinging their head. The dance is done in a large circle. It’s traditionally a war dance and used to be performed a long time ago on special occasions like National Day when the President and military would attend.
‘There is another traditional dance associated with this day called the harbiyya. It’s a little bit like when rappers get together and one challenges the other – they reply in turn as if it’s a battle. Around two rows of men stand opposite each other; there are approximately a dozen on each side and they take it in turns to recite verses of poetry at one another. It’s like a challenge.
‘Normally everybody goes out for National Day. You usually see cars draped in Emirati flags, designed with images of the sheikhs. They usually have a parade with people singing; there’s also traditional music. National Day has become more special, particularly for the young. There are more people going out and celebrating it these days. The city usually has singers and parades along the corniche where traffic usually grinds to a halt. For the older ones, if they have kids, they take them out to inspire them.’
Mohammed Al Sayed
‘My country is developing, we are moving ahead. National Day is a day to celebrate that. The city will be full, so myself and my family tend to go picnicking or driving in the desert. We’re also divers and we regularly go to Shark Island – although it’s just a name, there are no sharks. Because we are divers we tend to head to Musandam, north of Oman. National Day comes at just the right time for the weather, so it makes for the perfect break. Of course, it is a time to visit family also, like Ramadan or Eid. But usually we celebrate at work the day before the holiday or when we come back, and we tell each other, “We are a generation of the UAE”. I normally just like to get away on public holidays.
‘I don’t remember the first National Day – I was only young at the time – but I remember the school telling us that the UAE is coming. I was just three or four years when the nation was formed. The schools were telling us a lot about it and the authorities were putting a lot of flags on the road. I remember they were putting flags and pictures of the faces of the UAE leaders on all the roads, which I’m not seeing in the past few years. But in reality we did not know what was really going on. But now we are realising that the country is going ahead. I know that 37 years back we were nothing, but now we are ahead of a lot of countries.’
An expat’s guide to surviving National Day
Don’t drive…
Last year we were stuck amidst the hollering, honking and celebrating on Najda Street for four hours – we didn’t even make it to the corniche, let alone Emirate’s Palace where the fireworks were going off. Also, road sense is the first thing jettisoned with the fun, but when you paint your windscreen with the words ‘UAE OK’, you have little choice but to drive whilst hanging out of the window.
Do go to the races…
The National Day Cup at the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club is one of the highlights of the horseracing season. Ironically, it isn’t actually held on National Day, but December 6 instead. Nevertheless, it is a proper formal horseracing event and attracts crowds of up to 5,000, with both flat and endurances races held at the track.
Do catch the fireworks…
National Day is on December 2, but the festivities don’t end there, with firework displays being held at different locations around the island and free Arabic concerts held nightly in Abu Dhabi city, Al Ain and at Madinat Zayed in Al Gharbia until December 4.
