Posts in “Traditions” Category

I am very lucky because the day of my birthday was on multicultural day at school, multicultural day at school is when all of us dress up from different countries and present them to the school(it will be in my next post for more details). So because of multicultural day we didn't have lessons, so there was no lessons on my birthday.  But the luckier part was that my mom told me that I am allowed to pick five friends and take them down to the Dead Sea for the day!!! I got so excited so I invited five of my friends to come from school with me to the Dead Sea to celebrate my birthday!



The Dead Sea is a place 40 minutes away from were I live(Amman the capital of Jordan) it is the lowest point on earth and is so much fun.
 
There are swimming pools and beaches, and special mud that is very good for the skin. Lots of people go there for medical reasons as well as just to enjoy the weather, pools and beaches.

You may be thinking why it is called the Dead Sea; well it is called the Dead Sea because it is so salty that there are no animals living in it. A very cool fact about it is that if you swim in the Sea, you FLOAT  because of all the salt in it!
Me and my friends went down with my family and we had a blast.
We first went to the room in the  Hotel and changed into our swimming suits and then we hit the pool.

In my blog about school I mentioned that in our school we put on a great show every year called the Jordanian Folk Night! It is called the Jordanian Folk Night because we sing Jordanian songs and dance the dabka and the guests are entertained by a special guest. All the music played throughout the entire show is performed by our Grade 5 band, and they are incredible.

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!!!!!

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.

I am very lucky because I have a lot of family! Originally, Jordan was a tribal country. A tribe is a group of people who are related and lived together in a certain area, but now-a-days we all don't live together of course.

Did you know that people can still know where you are originally from and what family you come from by your last name? That is why it is called a FAMILY NAME! So when I tell someone my family name they will know that we are originally from the southern part of Jordan!

Because Jordan was and still is a tribal country, there are still big families just like mine!
Something crazy about my family is that I have 16 first cousins from my mother's and my father's sides of the family. The eldest is 23 years old and the youngest is three months old today!!


All my cousins have the funniest and coolest nicknames,  like Buggy, Louie, and Zenzoony. Other nicknames are Fulli,  Zemi, Simsim, KitKat, Lulu, Cookie, Oushie, Kanny, and Zooey. And my nickname is Tina!

I know that you and I love to wear jeans, t-shirts and training suits, but in Jordan we have a traditional costume. I don't wear the traditional costumes. I wear jeans and t-shirts just like you, but the Bedouins do wear them and so do the people that live in the countryside in Jordan.

There are traditional dresses for girls and boys. The girls wear a thobe or dishdasha, and each town has their own design. They are very pretty, and hand embroidered. The women also wear beautiful jewelry. Traditionally, the jewelry is made out of silver. They also wear makeup made out of kohl that is used like eyeliner. The Bedouin ladies also have tattoos in their chins! (Here I am wearing the traditional costume!)

Men also wear a dishdasha,  but it is not decorated, it is plain white. Over it they wear an aabayah which is like a cloak and is usually black. On their heads they wear a hattah and an igaal.

The hattah is red and white and the igaal is black. It takes the shape of a circle which goes in top of the hattah, holding it in place, and the men of course don't wear any makeup. ( My brother Hamza is wearing the men's traditional costume.)