JEDDAH, 8 December 2002 — Hazzouqah lane in Old Jeddah pulsed with the traditional festivities, which spontaneously break out every year for the Eid Al-Fitr. In a riot of noise, light and color, hundreds of children and their families brought life rekindled to the heartbeat of Balad.
This is no organized event but rather a spontaneous celebration at its purest. “Every year the festival here just happens,” said one resident of the square. “People are happy and they just come out on the street and celebrate.”
Glowing chains of colored lights strung from lampposts, cardboard boxes doubling as counters provided the backdrop for gaily decked camels and horses, their owners looking for youthful riders. The whole place echoed with the laughter of hundreds of children simply celebrating only as they can.
There were no roller coasters, haunted houses or any of the high-tech amusements associated with rather more organized events. It was just a happy jumble of amateurish but enthusiastic people out to have fun and do a little business if they could. The pure joy of the occasion shone in all the children’s smiles.
Food stands sold everything from cotton candy and hamburgers to traditional Arabic sweets and nuts. Crude barbecues fashioned from old oil drums were stacked with browning maize cobs, pots of chick peas and chilli, hot flat bread seared on oiled domes of cookers. Everything was on sale, pots and pans, clothing, Arabic bongo drums, and firecrackers.
Balloon sculptors wove animal shapes to shrieks of amusement as the young audience recognized the shape of the animal or bird the sculptor created.
Children sang traditional Eid songs that drowned out the frantic shouts of traders and stallholders. As for the adults tents billowing aromatic clouds of heavily scented smoke from shishas afforded temporary respite from the frenzy. Pool and ping pong tables were the scene of fierce but friendly competition among fathers temporarily separated from their charges.
Tucked almost out of sight, an oasis of calm in the crowd, a tent filled with immobile and seemingly transfixed young men and a low “bleeping” noise signaled the only touch of modernity in this very traditional fair. Five Playstation screens held the undivided attention for the younger adults at SR5 a turn. It was a striking anachronism.
The Eid fair isn’t Disneyland, but nobody cared; it was real, it was what people wanted and above all, it was fun!
