Question for Saudivette

O

Ozzy

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 1, 2009
Messages
318
Location
Eastern Washington
this is probabbly a stupid question:
Are you allowed to celebrate Christmas, or is it against the law of the land?

Merry Christmas.
 
Ozzy said:
this is probabbly a stupid question:
Are you allowed to celebrate Christmas, or is it against the law of the land?

Merry Christmas.
Click to expand...

Sorry for the delay mate. Christmas isn't recognized out here and so no public holiday etc. We have Christmas as normal on our compound and everyone puts up decorations in their villas. As with any community, there's a few people that decorate the outside of their place and a few of the people who (so long as they don't live near me) go berserk on the outside of their place with inflatable Santas, nativity scenes and enough lighting to me seen from the space shuttle. If Christmas falls on a work day for me, then tough shit, we all go to work and most of the miserable turds I work with (locals) don't even wish you a Merry Christmas. Christine works for a big oil company out here called ARAMCO and they're pretty tolerant to it and nice about it.

Christmas Day was a work day for me but luckily I was on late shift so was able to get up Christmas morning with my family. As is usual every year, and I'm not exaggerating, we always do night flying on the weeks that Christmas and New Year's Day fall on, if they fall during the week.

So no, there's no Christmas out here officially but on our compound, it looks like any small Western town at Christmas time ;)
 
I googled "Christmas in Saudia Arabia" and was launched on to many interesting websites. One was a Western woman (English) married to a Saudi, and she had a lot of interesting in-sights as to being a female in Saudi. She's been living in Saudi for may years. We read here that women in Saudi are treated just horribly, she responds to this by saying that in her situation there's no problem. She cites situations where it's comfortable to be a female in Saudi but , she didn't like the prohibitions against driving a car, and the outrageous (my words) that women's underwear stores (Virginia Secret like stores) would only have male clerks.
 
I guess she might be one of the lucky ones who's married a local that doesn't turn into a complete prick once the wedding photo's are taken.

I have met many newly arrived ladies coming out here for employment (just socially). If I get a chance, I try and warn them away from having anything to do with a local - they can be so incredibly charming but once they tie the knot, they change and you become their property, to be bossed around as they see fit.

The lady you spoke of could be a lucky one but then again, if she actually wrote anything bad and her husband found out, he could legally beat her...
 
http://susieofarabia.wordpress.com/2010/12/25/merry-christmas-from-saudi-arabia/

Yes, I wondered if she was being cautious about what she is writing.

During the late 1950's the US and the Soviet Union agreed to publish magazines about their country and to allow people to subscribe to the other country's magazine. I subscribed to Soviet Life. It presented life in the late 1950's as a blissful paradise. They especially propagandised the many different ethnic groups in the Soviet Union and pictures of people dressed up in colorful ethnic costumes. As a 17 year old, I knew it was all staged.
 
Interesting subject, Thailand is mostly Buddhist but Christmas trees, Santa's and lights are everywhere. Christmas day is not a holiday but most everyone wishes you a Merry Christmas.Actually the whole of December is a holiday and the light decorate most everything till after the new year. Except we don't have a sandbox.................LOL
 
BangkokDean said:
Interesting subject, Thailand is mostly Buddhist but Christmas trees, Santa's and lights are everywhere. Christmas day is not a holiday but most everyone wishes you a Merry Christmas.Actually the whole of December is a holiday and the light decorate most everything till after the new year. Except we don't have a sandbox.................LOL
Click to expand...

My observation is that Thai's will not allow any holiday to escape uncelebrated. My wife is an active participant in a local Wat (Long Beach,California). She does the cooking for the monks (pra, pronounced pah) on every Wednesday. Here they celebrate US Thanksgiving, Christmas, Western New Years, Thai New Year's, Chinese New Year' and Easter. (When I say they celebrate these US/Christian holidays, they don't celebrate the specific Christian elements, just the the basic personal interactions.) There's also water feastible (Krong Set -spelling), and other Thai Buddhist holidays that occur on monthly basis. My wife's son lives in Bangkok and is married and has daughter. They are all Buddhists, yet the daughter goes to a Catholic High School. (Guess who pays tuition). The Catholic High School will often have a Buddhist monk as a guest to provide a Friday ethics/spiritual sermon. Thai's are pretty relaxed and tolerant of other religions. To be distinguished from the other you know what religion.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top