Do they know it's Easter? Or Christmas?! ummm... not really.

A friend of mine asked me to share my observations about the middle east perceptions of the coming Christian holiday. In Saudi Arabia, they don't really think about it. A large portion of the people probably don't even know about it, or know much about it.

Around the holidays Michael and I were discussing if our friend from Yemen was familiar with Christmas. My bet was that he had heard of it, and maybe saw Santa on TV or something. I knew he watched American movies and things, so I figured he had picked it up at some point. Michael thought that he probably knew nothing about it. I had trouble imagining that. We asked, and he had no clue what we were talking about. Why should he? This man grew up a Muslim in Yemen, and moved to Saudi Arabia a few years ago to find better work. If you look at the pure numbers in Jeddah, I am sure this is a version of the average citizen, legal or otherwise.

Then there are the people that are much better off than our Yemeni friend. This is the other half of the population here. They have TV and books and movies and American cars and clothes. Lots of them have been to America, or at least their dad has on business or something. The kids seem to be aware of the more commercial parts of other holidays. You can't watch many cartoons without a Halloween episode or a Santa sneaking in. But again, they just don't really care. I met a girl my age, an upper class girl who's father travels back and forth to America quite a bit. Her English was good, she had gone to University and studied English lit. We were talking and it was reviled that I was not a Muslim. I am pretty sure that she had never considered that I was not. What am I doing in Saudi Arabia as a non Muslim? Less than 5% of the population here is something other than Muslim! I think I was the first person she had met, who was not serving her dinner, that was non Muslim. We talked about it. She was really glad to be a Muslim, and had never even thought about exploring another religion. But man! She really wanted to go to America.

I was surprised to see hints of Easter popping up at the grocery store this month. You hear a lot of things about this country banning other holidays and practices. But I think in Jeddah, that idea is just a lot of talk to keep the older conservative people and the stricter parts of the country happy. You can find aisles of bunny, lamb, and chick stuffed animals with the toys. There are displays of Easter candy at the front of some stores, and you can buy little fake lilies. Again, you just can't escape the commercialism and western influences here. I can't get a ham, but I can load up on jellybeans and chocolate eggs. Happy Easter.

Coming from a place where the population is 75% Christian, especially if you practice it, I know it has to be hard to imagine a land without Christmas or Easter. But, how much do you really know about Ramadan off hand? It is the same, but backwards here. Growing up in a Muslim country you just really don't know a whole lot about Christian holidays, and you really don't mind. You can still get the candy.


As for the dyed baby chicks they give away as prizes at the arcade, they have been out of them the two times we took our neighbor boy to win one. He says they die quickly anyway (with one shot of the BB gun)!