RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Looking for Easter goodies in this Muslim city is like going on an extended egg hunt — but without the certainty that hours of searching will yield any treasures.
Easter, like other Christian holidays, is illegal in Saudi Arabia, a country where Islam is the only recognized religion and hours of searching is necessary to find even a few chocolate eggs.
The kingdom adheres to the strict Wahhabi interpretation of the most conservative school of Sunni Islam, which considers any form of celebration — birthdays, Valentine's Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving and even most Muslim feasts — to be "religious innovations" that Islam does not sanction. Only the Muslim feasts of al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, and al-Adha, which concludes the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, are permitted.
Saudi Arabia has stated publicly that its policy is to protect the right of non-Muslims to worship privately. However, Crown Prince Sultan has stressed that the kingdom would never allow churches to be built.
Despite the restrictions, however, it's possible for expatriates, who make up Saudi's Christian population, to have something resembling a holiday at home during the big celebrations.
At Thanksgiving, pumpkin pie spices, cranberry sauce, stuffing mix and tinned sweet potatoes miraculously appear on supermarket shelves. During Christmas, yule log shaped cakes, plastic Christmas trees and glittering red, green, silver and gold candles can be found.
But even the smallest decorations are hard to find during Easter. Among four stores in this city that usually carry Christmas items, only one store stocked chocolate eggs. A sign beneath the sweets at the end of the chocolate isle said "seasonal collection."
Elsewhere in the Middle East, the mood was more celebratory, where Christians openly celebrated the holiday Sunday, packing churches and buying chocolate eggs and bunnies.
In the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia's neighbor, many embassy workers were given the day off, and some hotels set up special Easter meals. One cruise ship did a special trip around a Dubai creek during which passengers sampled an Easter dinner.
Filipinos, Indians and Sri Lankans make up the majority of Christian worshippers in the Emirates, along with foreign workers from Europe and the U.S. Many packed St. Mary's church, one of the biggest Roman Catholic churches in the Emirates. The church, which had expected a crowd in excess of its 1,700 seating capacity, set up TV screens within its premises for those who could not find a seat.
At the Greek Orthodox church in Kuwait, Christians dressed in their best clothing and were given colored eggs after kissing the cross at the end of mass. The celebrations were small as Kuwait is home to only a few hundred Christians.
In Jordan, hundreds of Orthodox Christians and Catholics began their observance of Easter late Saturday night, packing churches with overnight vigils that stretched into the early morning hours amid the tightened security.
Some 250 worshippers carrying candles and celebrating Christ's resurrection with joyful singing greeted the dawn at a tiny 6th century church atop Mt. Nebo, from where Moses was believed to have seen "the promised land."
"Attaining peace in Jerusalem would make a world of difference there and remedy other troubled areas," retired Jerusalem Anglican Bishop Riah Abu al-Assal told worshippers at Mt. Nebo in Jordan. Continue >>
RSS
