Jordanians split over New Year festivities

By Taylor Luck and Rand Dalgamouni

AMMAN - While it may be a time-honored tradition elsewhere in the world, people in Jordan remain split on whether and how to celebrate New Year.

As the clock nears midnight on Friday, citizens’ approach to the holiday will vary wildly, ranging from those putting it all on the line for a night to remember to citizens with complete apathy towards a “foreign holiday”.

Amman is not short on New Year festivities: endless newspaper, SMS and e-mail ads have been distributed for the last month promoting concerts by big-name Arab artists, five-course gourmet dinners and open bars.

But with tickets running up to JD300, double the JD150 monthly minimum wage, many Jordanians said they feel priced out of the festivities altogether.

Hassan Mahmoud, a 34-year-old insurance clerk, said that he took out a personal loan in order to afford going out with his friends to a hotel party, with preparations that included a new suit.

“At the end of the day, you have to go out for New Years,” he said.

Eman, a Yarmouk University graduate student, said that she will drop up to JD400 to go out with her friends to celebrate the holiday at one of the capital’s hotels.

“This is the one night of the year that we all go out together. They do it in New York, they do it in London, and we definitely do it in Amman,” she said.

Some Jordanians said they believe that despite the hype and high ticket prices, a “night out on the town” simply isn’t worth the trouble.

Hind Bashtawi, a hotel receptionist, said that after living in Dubai, the capital’s New Year festivities pale in comparison.

“In Dubai there are celebrations everywhere, but here I don’t feel that there is a party atmosphere,” she said, adding that she is planning to mark the New Year with a quiet night at home.

Yazeed, a 17-year-old resident of Jabal Nuzha, said that despite not having a source of income, he will find his own way of taking part in the festivities. To mark the new year, he said he will spend New Year’s Eve driving around with friends in west Amman eating sunflower seeds and “watching the rich pass by” on their way to five-star hotels, clubs and restaurants.

“It’s like having our own cinema, but for free,” Yazeed said.

While some Amman hotels and restaurants are reporting sold out events, others are privately anticipating smaller turnouts than previous years.

Hassan Hamdeh, an event coordinator at an Amman hotel, said that he expected a poor showing come this New Year’s Eve.

“I’ve been in this business since the 1990s; things used to be different back then. We used to have guests who were regulars, now we never see their faces,” he said.

Raymon Haddad, organiser of a hotel concert, said that economic situation may affect turnout, which may be “the lowest yet”.

“People are hard up these days, so they might not come to the concert.”

“If you want my personal opinion, I don’t think this year is worth a celebration, anyway,” he added.

‘Against Islam’

Not all are concerned with getting into the spirit of New Year.

Some Jordanians said they view the night as a product of commercialism, foreign culture and even depravity.

Suhail Raghib, a department store manager, said that he shuns the holiday on religious grounds.

“Celebrating the New Year is haram [religiously forbidden] in Islam,” he said.

Raghib said he associates New Year’s Eve with a night of excess, noting that one customer recently purchased JD200 worth of groceries for her New Year party.

“This shows the great gap in Jordan between the rich and the working class,” he said.

Taxi driver Mohammad Louay said the focus on drinking rather than cultural, religious and social norms and traditions make New Year an “empty holiday”.

“Drinking and dancing - this is not a holiday. This is disgusting,” he said.

Despite his abhorrence of New Year festivities, he admitted that he will use the opportunity to pick up passengers going out to enjoy the night.

Reyadh Naeim, who also drives a taxi for a living, said that the celebrations represent a foreign intrusion into Arab and Islamic culture.

“We only have two occasions to celebrate in Islam: Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha. This is a blind imitation of the West,” he said.

Some Jordanians said they are avoiding the “party dilemma” altogether and are using the holiday to get a change of scenery to start off the New Year.

Mahmoud Kreishan, an employee at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, said that he will head down to Aqaba with his family for the holiday.

“It’s good to celebrate the New Year amidst all these gloomy developments,” he said.

Forty-four-year-old plumber Abu Ahmed said that rather than worrying about how to best mark the start of 2011, he will settle on spending the night smoking argileh (water pipe) and calling and texting family, friends and acquaintances from across the Kingdom.

“This is the Jordanian way of celebrating the New Year,” he said.

31 December 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=33085.