December 2008 Archives

Merry Christmas to all! I hope you had a lovely Christmas! I know that Christians mainly celebrate Christmas but some Muslims do too. I am a Muslim and I celebrate Christmas just like you. Let me share my 2008 Christmas with you!
                                                                              Before Christmas day I go to many parties like my Aunt Jemman's party. It was great fun. There were many goodies and presents and singing. Christmas carolers came and sang lovely Christmas songs. It was tons of  fun and entertaining, and after that amazing party I went home to bed and woke up and it was Christmas!

I have many different hobbies and I have things that I enjoy to do. I am going to share my hobbies and my activities with you

In school there are many different activities that you can sign up for, and there are also after school activities and Saturday activities. I have after school activities every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Some of the things I do at school are mainly my hobbies like dance. After school I really enjoy dance in school. I take the Arabic Dabkah which is a traditional Arabic folk dance. It is fun to dance to, every year in February there is a big Arabic folk night in school, and there are songs and dances. This year I am going to perform in the Arabic fashion show where the girls that are in it dress up in Arab traditional costumes and share the dresses with the audience. It is great fun!

I also do activities out of school like ballet. As I said, I love all kinds of dance and it is my favorite hobby, but ballet is one of the kinds of dance I love most.

I take ballet lessons with two of my best friends. I am at Level Four. I have passed all my exams.  They are set by The British Ballet Organization. Every year an examiner comes out from England and we have to dance to a set routine. It is a bit scary, but I really enjoy it.

I also love choreography! I love to make up dance routines to funky music with my friends. My favourite singers right now are Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, Avril Lavigne, Hillary Duff, and The Jonas Brothers.

One of the other activities I do out of school is gymnastics. I enjoy gymnastics a lot, I know how to cartwheel and handstand and of course front roll!

I enjoy the sport volleyball. I am on the team at school,  my friends and I all tried out this year, and luckily made the team!!!

If you have any hobbies like me feel free to share them with me!!!!!

My two friends and I took a video to help you learn how to play the tabblah. Hope you like it!

Here are a few more photos from our journey on the first day of our two-day trip.

I went to Petra!!!!
The day before yesterday my family and I and a group of our friends went down to Petra for a two-day trip.

We left early in the morning and met at a specific place and off we all went all the cars behind each other. It took about two hours to get there but it wasn't that bad. We arrived at the hotel we were all excited  we went into the lobby and I said hi to my friends who are: Suraya, Laila, Tala and Zinya. After we all got settled we headed out to explore Petra.

I know that Christians have special celebrations and so do Muslims. One of them is called Eid Al Adha, the Festival of the Sacrifice.

Eid Al Adha is celebrated to remember what happened with one of the Muslim prophets whose name was Ibrahim (or Abraham), and his son. Of course this was a very long time ago, so here is the story and what happened:

The Prophet Ibrahim saw while he was sleeping that God had asked him to kill his son as a sacrifice to God. God tells some special prophets when he wants them to do something.

He was a really great prophet and believed in God, and knew that what God asks is only for the good. He told his son about the dream and his son said, you are a great man and what you do is for the good so you may kill me .The Prophet Ibrahim put his son on the floor and tried to kill him, but it wouldn't work! The knife wouldn't cut his son.

All of a sudden a sheep from God appeared to the prophet and suddenly he knew that God was asking him not to kill his son, but instead to kill the sheep.

This is why during Eid Al Adha many Muslims who can afford to, will still sacrifice a sheep as a reminder of Abraham's obedience to God. Don't worry, the meat is shared by family and given to the poor.

During Eid Al Adha many Muslims may travel, like I said in my other post, but usually they go to hajj. Hajj is the special pilgrimage that Muslims make at this time. Muslims go to Mecca Al Mukaramah in Saudi Arabia and walk around Al Kaaba, which is the most sacred place in Islam, and pray there. Eid Al Adha falls on the day after the pilgrims finish the hajj.

The photo I have added is of my great grandfather (my mother's grandfather) when he was at the hajj. We think it was taken about 30 years ago or so.It's a really cool photo because you can see the Kaaba clearly behind him. It looks like a black cube. He is wearing a white thobe (see my traditional costumes post) and in his hand he is holding a prayer mat.

The holidays are coming up and many people travel during Christmas or other Jordanian celebrations like Eid.

Jordan is a great place to visit and explore. There are many different places that you can visit in Jordan! 

Petra is one of them, and it is one of The New Seven Wonders of the World. It is also so beautiful. It takes about three hours to get there in the car from Amman. You can camp out there or go for a day to explore.

Aqaba is also one great place to visit. Many people go there because it is by the sea--the Red Sea to be precise! There are many pools and lots of different hotels that you can stay in. You can do all kinds of water sports and dive or snorkel. It takes about four hours to get there by car, or you can go by plane!

The Dead Sea is another great place, with a beach and pools and hotels. The Dead Sea is one of the lowest points on earth and the sea itself is so salty you can actually float in the sea. There are so many different and exciting places sorry that I didn't mention them all!







Here is the city Jerash.