December 18 is celebrated at Qatar national Day. From ndqatar.com:

On the 18th December every year, we celebrate our National Day to commemorate that historical day in 1878 when Shaikh Jasim, the founder of the state, succeeded his father Sheikh Mohammed Bin Thani in leading the country towards unity and foundation.
Born in 1242 h (1826 c), Sheikh Jasim was raised in Fowayret, north Qatar within the confines of his famous father Shaikh Mohammed Bin Thani. He was educated by religious clerks, learning the Qura’an, Shariaa and jurisprudence, along with equestrian, hunting and literature. Shaikh Jasim also shared his father in ruling the country.

 

Qatar had a huge number of events scheduled for it’s national holiday. We opted to attend the parade, and the fireworks show.

The parade was super crowded and was largely a military affair. Lots of trucks, tanks, fire trucks, quad bikes, a selection of navy craft, jets helicopters, troop carriers etc. Getting to the parade proved challenging – Traffic. what is normally a 15 minute drive took us just under an hour, and we had to walk the last half…

You can tell from the photograps below that we didn’t have the best vantage point.

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The boys enjoyed rolling down the hill more than the parade…

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Music was cool, dancing – even better.

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Thomas did at least see some of the parade…

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Just a cute kid.

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The airshow was by far the schellenberg boy favourite. Jen liked the creative uses of the Qatari flag used in a lot of the kids garments…

 

The other event we attended was the fireworks show. We took lots of time, and planned to have dinner on the corniche (where the event was to happen) We arrived in the area at 5, for an 8pm show. We ate supper at fudruckers, then walked across the (crazy) traffic and to the water. TheSchellenbergsNationalDay10  TheSchellenbergsNationalDay12 TheSchellenbergsNationalDay13

We found a seat where we would have a good view of the show and sat and waited… 7:30, we were ready.

 

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Qatar doesn’t have a good history of being all that punctual. I swear it was 8:01 when the fireworks started, and start they did.

First it was subtle, lighting what looked like small flares and encircling the various “stages” with fire. Then about a minute later, the music wa splaying and the show started.

 

I can’t explain what a few million dollars fo fire works looks like. but for about 18 minutes, this is what it looked like:

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It was a great show. Thanks to the organizing committee, you outdid yourselves.

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