National Day in Qatar

On December 18th it was National Day in Qatar. The entire country celebrates the king who made the country grow and develop so fast up until today. Since 2008, Qatar celebrates this day and it became a national holiday for everybody.

Let me tell you, everybody goes crazy  and the country is not the same anymore on that day. The streets, malls and houses are decorated with flags and red and white ornaments to show honor for the day. And not to forget all the cars, which are covered in a special foil with special pictures for the national day:

Early in the morning, there was a parade at 7am at the corniche with the military, camels, marching bands, air planes and several other groups to honor the Emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.

Current Emir and Father Emir

 

 

 

Due to the fact, that the entire city was full of traffic, we rather stayed at home to watch the parade on Tv than being stuck in traffic for the whole day. But here I found somepictures to descirbe you what was going on on that day:

Parade at Corniche

 The airplane show was insane. Many helicopters and military air planes made a very cool show with colored smoke and parachutists showing off their special skills.

Air plane show

Later that day, Inge and I went to Darb Al Saae, a public place with tents and houses especailly set up for the time around the national day. In that area, many activities and companies were present to show off the beauty of Qatar.
Besides amazing tradiational Qatari food and drinks, there was alot to explore. The Souq offered many little shops with merchandise from , scarves, jewelery, clothes, parfumes etc. At dusk they turned on these pretty light bulbs everywhere, which gave a beautiful atmosphere to the whole public place. 

Part of Darb Al Saae

 
 Another highlight during my time here in Qatar was, when I finally got the chance to hold a falcon *.* I just love these animlas so much since I am here, because here they have a totally different status than in Europe. falcons are traded here with high prices and are used for hunting purposes. A special section at the Souq Waqif has all the accessories you need for these animals like the headpieces to blind them in order to calm them down. I finally can cross of that attraction off my to do list in Qatar.

Next to falcons and camels at the Darb Al Saae, they also had an Arabic horse show. All the horses were decorated as well with pretty nice sattles and blankets in the national day colors.

We also saw little camels for the first time in real life. The little camles were a little bit shy and always hiding close to their moms :D A very happy day at the end with alot of new impressions of the Qatari lifestyle in terms of celebrating the National Day. Happy National Day Everybody!!!