Strings of Lights

Wandering around, I noticed that Dubai is starting to put up Christmas Winter Shopping lights. The ones I saw were of four-leaf clovers (in various colours).

Last year, they started putting up the lights just before Christmas, but then took them all down after the tragic, unexpected death of Sheikh Maktoum. Previous years, they waited until after Christmas before putting up the lights, just to be on the safe side.

The dates for the Winter Shopping Festival keep moving with the Islamic Calendar, so it won’t overlap Ramadan. My first year in Dubai, it was in March, then Jan/Feb, and now Dec/Jan, so Europeans can be encouraged to do their Christmas Shopping in Dubai.

The malls have put out Christmas decorations, both the ‘Winter Seasonal Decorations,’ now encouraged in the US, and Christian reminders of Christmas, the ones that always provoke lawsuits in the US.

I can remember when the custom was to start the Christmas season in Advent, which falls in late November, and many people saying that it was bad taste for retailers to put out Christmas items earlier. In Dubai, at least they had the decency to wait until after Halloween.