So, Kuwait's National Day is here and even Google knows it:
(Google, 25 February 2010 - in the colors of the Kuwaiti flag and the 'e' in the shape of Kuwait)National Day means many Kuwaitis decorating their cars in the colors of the flag (black, red, white, and green), with pictures of the royal family, the shape of Kuwait or anything showing patriotism and love to their country and appreciation of their twice-won freedom:
(Car decorated with the Kuwaiti flag and pictures of the Royal Family)
(Car decorated with hearts in the colors of the Kuwaiti flag)
(A mustang that has it all: the royal family on the back window, the shape of Kuwait above the back wheel, the numbers 25 and 26 indicating February 25 (National Day) and 26 (Liberation Day), the colors of the flag and - last but not least - Louis Vuitton logos in the colors of the flag...)Apparently there used to be parades and processions through the city with music and all but they were suspended following the Gulf War in honor of the martyrs and the prisoners of war whose fate have not yet been revealed and are still listed as missing.
Instead, another trend has escalated through the years to a complete madness: kids and teenagers spraying foam at cars!
They started already yesterday - dressed in special clothes for the occasion and armed with foam cans and 'super soakers':
(Kids yesterday waiting for cars to pass by that they can spray water and foam on - notice how their maids are standing to the left ready to wipe the kids with towels, while the mothers observe in safe distance in the back...)As soon as a car drove by, it got sprayed:
Things did not get too much out of control yesterday - especially since the police was very present. Spraying the cars is illegal except for the 25th and 26th so they were handing out a lot of fines... Didn't seem to stop many people though, and the partying continued into the late evening with cars blocking the Gulf Road, people playing music, singing, shouting and hanging out of their cars:
(Cars blocking the Gulf Road heading into Salmiya, Feb 24)It was close to midnight before the police - using roadblocks - managed to disperse the traffic.
Today they were at it again and it seems that whoever ventured out had it coming... A (very) few adults, however, managed to make the kids too scared to spray them - like this man who raised his finger at the kids and did not get sprayed:
(One lucky man avoiding the foam)And the more obvious exception:
(A police car not getting sprayed...)But everybody else could do nothing but try and keep the windows closed:
(Young boys and a teenager spraying a car with foam)
Even the narrowest opening in a window is enough:
And apparently it's not enough to just stand on the road and spray the cars - if you can get onto them it's even better:
(Teenager on the hood of a moving car spraying its windscreen)
(Boys clinging to a 4x4 and one sitting on top - a vantage point for spraying at others as well)Some kids had engaged their parents to help them out in the fight - like these two boys who are firing their water guns through the sun roof of their parents' car:
On National Day no one should feel safe - including this poor delivery guy on a scooter who had to go to the nearby hotel and deliver something (and this is the only road leading to the hotel):
...He made a narrow escape with minimal damage:
There a few rules to follow on National Day if one cannot avoid to drive - whatever you do, keep your windows closed and your doors locked! This delivery van had forgotten to lock the back door as these kids are soon to find out:
(Kids foaming a delivery van - after lifting the windscreen wipers so that the poor guy inside has no chance of wiping away the foam)
(The kids realize that he has forgotten to lock the back door and his delivery gets sprayed...)A private car forgot to lock its side door and the kids - who pull all door handles even on moving cars - soon found out and completely sprayed the people inside and the interior:
What looks like a celebrity arriving is what happens when the kids quickly find out that there is an opportunity to empty their cans inside the car - the national television was on the spot as well filming:
One of the reasons this foaming thing escalates is that many car owners have had enough and have started to fight back:
(Fighting back: kids getting sprayed from inside the car)
(Fighting back from inside the car with a can of foam)
(Fighting back with a super soaker water gun)
(Fighting back with foam)After a while it had become trivial to spray the cars and the kids turned on each other instead:
(Local girl covered in foam - courtesy of her brother)...And even some of the adults got involved:
(Local man with a spray can in his hand)Some of the younger kids got brave and sprayed the older boys:
...which led to some serious revenge:
The resulting fighting included many combinations of 'young against the older', 'boys against the girls', and 'everybody against everybody':
You really should click to enlarge this one (below): superman boy sprays the girl in red stripes, the older boy with the wig sprays the red striped girl from behind while he is himself being sprayed by another older boy, the two to the left spray into the crowd and the boy in the bottom of the pic is rushing in on his roller blades with a spray can in his hand:
In Kuwait, teenage boys and girls have very few chances of interacting with each other as it is considered inappropriate. When the rare opportunity to interact presents itself, they go all in - whether completely foaming this girl is going to make a positive impression on her, I don't know but for sure they got some interaction:
(Local girl looking like a snowman as the boys ganged up on her)
(Younger boys against teenage boys)
(Local girl covered in beige foam)One boy was clever, though and decided to sell his cans as he saw the mayhem and resulting lack of full cans. I'm sure he got a good price - and it only took him a minute to find a box and a quiet corner to sit:
(Boy selling foam cans)
(Empty cans left on the beach)
(An elderly gentleman videotaping the madness)After all the action we went to the nearby beach where there had been several attempts during the week to fly the biggest ever Kuwaiti flag. The dust, sand and strong winds made it impossible but the flag was still lying there spread out:
And then a well-deserved watermelon mojito - non-alcoholic, of course. Unlike places like Dubai, no hotels and no restaurants here have liquor licenses (not even for foreigners). It was still yummy, though. We had bought a few Kuwaiti flags that we carried in our camera bag - it seemed to be appreciated and we got a few remarks from people asking if we liked Kuwait. And we do!
We were asked a couple of times during the day to give a short interview to national television - about how we experienced the day, our opinion about Kuwait etc. but we politely declined - we are not quite ready to be 'local celebrities' yet :-) Apparently they thought it was fun that we were observing the foam fights - most foreigners (at least European and North American) either travel out of the country, stay at home or go to one of the resorts further down the coast to spend some quiet family time. We figured we have to experience the National Day at least once - how can you ever understand a country if you do not?
(Local boy and his grandfather being interviewed for television)
(Young girl celebrating National Day)This is as close as you will ever get to snow in Kuwait :-) :
The celebrations continued well into the night as kids, teenagers and probably a few adults stood all along the Gulf Road and sprayed the cars:
(Traffic on the Gulf Road at a standstill (towards Kuwait Towers))Police had a busy day - not least because some celebrators seemed to not understand the limit: there were reports of kids filling their super soakers with tomato sauce and others spraying hair removal cream instead of foam!! All in all, though, it was a fun day!
