(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Irfan Bukhari & Sidi Mohamed | The Peninsula
As the whole country has entered into festive mood to mark upcoming National Day with full fervor and preparations are underway to make the event memorable with colours of loyalty and unity, official festivities of Qatar National Day will kick start today at Darb Al Saai.
To celebrate National Day on December 18 in an unprecedented manner this year, both citizens and expatriates have started their preparations and they are decorating their cars, homes, shops with Qatari flags and the images of Emir HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Shops across the country particularly in hypermarkets and traditional souqs like Souq Waqif are selling dozens of items like posters, stickers, tea cups, shirts, badges, flags etc. to excited customers.
'The sales of National Day related items have increased manifold in the last few days. This year the excitement for the event is very high in the wake of unjust siege imposed on Qatar for the last six months, Saeed Ahmed, a local shopkeeper told The Peninsula.
The festivities of the Qatar National Day will kick off today at Darb El Saai, the most popular venue of the National Day celebrations, in the presence of various government and private entities' representatives and heads of organizations participating in the event, said a statement issued by National Day Organizing Committee.
The opening ceremony will be held at 4pm with the raising of the flag at Darb Al Saai while the celebrations will continue for ten days till December 20, and the event will start receiving people from 3pm today.
People can visit Darb Al Saai during these ten days in two shifts; from 8am to 12noon and from 4pm to 10pm except on Friday when it will receive visitors from 2pm to 11 pm. This year, the motto of Qatar National Day celebrations is 'Promise of Prosperity and Glory which has been taken from a quote of the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Almost all public and private sector organizations have announced celebrating National Day with their unique activities.
Qatar Foundation (QF) will join in this year's National Day festivities by hosting an exciting schedule of events at its Darb Al-Saai tent. The theme of this year's activities is 'Siraj, QF's new 3D animation edutainment TV series, which aims to instill a love of the Arabic language from an early age in children.
Additional Darb Al-Saai activities include an immersive QF Tram experience, interactive storytelling sessions and an exciting horse-riding simulator, catering to all ages and designed to provide learning opportunities that will promote and preserve Qatar's culture and heritage.
Some of the exciting activities on offer this year include the QF Tram experience, which will take visitors on a journey detailing Education City's schools, universities and research centres, while highlighting QF's ongoing sustainability efforts. Additionally, QF's popular National Reading Campaign will host a series of interactive games and learning opportunities for children, such as a book swap, story maze, and Scrabble, as well as the innovative Reading Truck.
Katara Cultural Village is also all set to organize a number of colourful activities to celebrate National Day. Katara General Manager Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim al-Sulaiti recently said that Qatar's National Day celebrations for this year have a special symbolism as they represent the Qatari people's unity behind their wise leadership.
In an interview with QNA in the run-up of the country's National Day celebrations on December 18, Dr al-Sulaiti said that Katara will provide its visitors with the most beautiful celebrations and would dazzle its visitors through innovative events through which Katara would be transformed into a place full of national meanings and a platform of culture and heritage.
At Darb Al Saai, many governmental and non governmental bodies are participating like the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Ministry of Defence, Traffic Department, Police College, the General Directorate of Civil Defence, Qatar Development Bank, Qatar Foundation etc.
The Police College will participate in the celebration and launch the biggest portrait of Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani named 'The Dignity Image at Darb El Saai. In an attempt to set a Guinness World Record, more than 14,000 people would be required to colour the portrait.
Also there is participation in Darb Al Saai from Qatar Foundation for Social Work (QFSW) and the centers working under its umbrella. The participation of the QFSW will be through a special event for children 'Kids Qatar which includes a number of different games.
To facilitate huge number of visitors during the whole ten days celebrations, the National Day organizing committee has allocated vast parking areas for visitors. To address any medical emergency case, the Committee has also offered medical services and ambulances in collaboration with a number of medical institutions under the supervision of Hamad Medical Corporation.
Meanwhile, 'Embrace Doha, a Qatari company specialising in cultural events, is all set to launch an eight-day National Day Festival aimed at showing support to Qatar amid the current blockade by offering a unique blend of events and activities to visitors at the Cultural Village Foundation Katara.
To be held from December 12 to 19 at Katara Esplanade, the festival called 'Labaih Ya Emir (Here I am at your service, O Emir) will comprise four sections namely Culture, Education, Entertainment and Local Village.
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