Another Holiday

This is the area called the Corniche. It's common in all mid-eastern countries -- cement walkways along the water. This one is many miles long and includes areas with American imports such as: Chili's, TGIFridays, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, McDonalds, Burger King, Krispy Kreme, ... So far we've tried Chili's (and loved the food) and will soon visit Starbucks!

Thursday was Saudi National Day, a celebration of the beginning/unification of this country on Sept 23, 1932 by King Abdul Aziz bin Saud. Because the 23rd falls on a weekend (weekends are Thursday and Friday), Saturday is a holiday, too. So Jim's working from home. But the real celebrations were Thursday. We were warned to stay away from the corniche area because there has been quite a bit of rioting in recent years during the celebrations.

The holiday was only established in 2003 and it's existence is a symbol of the shift this country is slowly making toward a government that makes some (not many, though) decisions apart from Islam. True devotees are angered by and do not recognize this holiday because they do not believe there should be any holidays other than those established by Muslim laws and traditions. They don't even believe that there should be birthday celebrations.

Here's a bit from Wikipedia about the kingdom and it's kings.

The Third Saudi state was founded by the late King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. In 1902 Ibn Saudi captured Riyadh, the Al-Saud dynasty's ancestral capital, from the rival Al-Rashid family. Continuing his conquests, Abdul Aziz subdued Al-Hasa, the rest of Nejd, and the Hejaz between 1913 and 1926. Boundaries with Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait were established by a series of treaties negotiated in the 1920s, with two "neutral zones" created, one with Iraq and the other with Kuwait. On January 8, 1926 Hussain Ibn Ali became the King of Sharqiya. On January 27, 1927 he took the title King of Nejd (his previous Nejdi title was Sultan). By the Treaty of Jeddah, signed on May 20, 1927, the United Kingdom recognized the independence of Abdul Aziz's realm (then known as the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd). In 1932, these regions were unified as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The discovery of oil on March 3, 1938 transformed the country. The country's southern boundary with Yemen was partially defined by the 1934 Treaty of Taif, which ended a brief border war between the two states.

Abdul Aziz's military and political successes were not mirrored economically until vast reserves of oil were discovered in March 1938. Development programs, which were delayed due to the onset of the Second World War in 1939, began in earnest in 1946 and by 1949 production was in full swing. Oil has provided Saudi Arabia with economic prosperity and a great deal of political leverage in the international community. prior to his death in 1953, Abdul Aziz, aware of the difficulties facing other regional absolute rulers reliant on extended family networks, attempted to regulate the succession.

Saud succeeded to the throne on his father's death in 1953. However, by the early 1960s the Kingdom was in jeopardy due to Saud's economic mismanagement and failure to deal effectively with a regional challenge from Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. As a consequence, Saud was deposed in favor of Faisal in 1964. intra-family rivalry, echoed by increasing complications from the 1973 oil crisis, was one of the factors that led to the assassination of Faisal by his nephew, Prince Faisal bin Musa'id, in 1975. He was succeeded by King Khalid until 1982 and then by King Fahd. When Fahd died in 2005, his half-brother, Abdullah, ascended to the throne.