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Kids waving flags on UAE's 41st National Day, December 2, 2012

Our fourth National Day in Dubai was pretty much the same as the others. With the December 2 holiday falling on a Sunday this year, however, Neal enjoyed his first real two-day weekend in a while. (Friday and Saturday are the weekend days in the UAE, but Friday doesn't work as a weekend day for him since it's a workday in the USA.) We have yet to attend the parades downtown, and some of the planned festivities had to be rescheduled due to the recent storms.

The theme for celebrating the UAE's 41st year was "Spirit of the Union." All seven emirates join in the celebrations, which involve a massive display of flags in all different sizes and forms, as well as pictures of the ruling sheikhs everywhere. One of them, I noticed, bears a striking resemblance to Ringo Starr with a beard. Emiratis show their patriotism by draping huge flags on their houses. One is never enough, and they seem to be engaging in friendly competition for largest, longest, highest and most flags. The black, white, red, and green colors of the flag are everywhere, with many skyscrapers adopting that color scheme for the holiday.

The emirates also seem to join in the competition, with Ajman trying to set a Guinness world record by launching 40,000 Chinese lanterns, and Sharjah building an enormous flagpole to anchor a new Flag Island display. Sharjah must be paying deference to big brother Abu Dhabi since the 123-metre height of the new pole equals but does not exceed the height of Abu Dhabi's highest flag pole.

Many Emiratis decorate their cars in the national colors and then drive like crazy to show off, but there was a lot less of that this year, as the Dubai police issued a big crackdown on unauthorized car parades. There was an official car parade downtown for those in the right kind of spirit. The parks and beaches were full of families having picnics and parties, and today looking down as I walked the beach I noticed strange colored wads of string, which I immediately recognized as "silly string." Remember when that was big in the USA? It must be a craze here now. Another new thing I saw this year was the electricity dress, which includes strings of light in the colors of the flag. An interesting way to get lit up in a country where it's illegal for Muslims to drink alcohol.

Since shopping is the national sport and main attraction, many stores offered special sales, some going as high as 41% off for the holiday. If the stores in the malls ever offer that kind of discount, maybe I'll go shopping.

The highlight for me was getting a text message from HHSHKMOHD, who, of course, is Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai. He congratulated the citizens and residents of the UAE, and his brother, Sheikh Khalifa, the President of the UAE, in celebrating the UAE's 41st anniversary and looking ahead towards "a bright future of endless possibilities." Nicely done, Sheikh Mo!

Men decked out in "electricity dress."