Monday, September 15, 2008

Garangao Sweets

qatarGarangao is a celebration that is traditionally held in the Gulf area on the 14th day of Ramadan. It has no religious connotations. This evening, children, clad in their traditional clothes, will come out of their homes and knock on every door in their neighbourhood, which will be ready to receive them with sweets and nuts. They collect the goodies in the special cotton bags, hanging loosely from their necks. Kids will be seen wandering around the streets until late into the night singing the special Garangao song.

I have seen some of the kids around my area with their mothers walking behind them. A real fancy sight because these little arab children are terribbly cute especially in their colourful traditional clothes.

And usually in school they would celebrate garangao as well. the school would encourage the children to wear the national costume. My kids pakai baju rayalah apa lagi. Begitulah setiap tahun. You really should see the arab kids' traditional attire. The girls particularly. The wear the brightest and fanciest clothes with gold adornment and trimmings and gold headgear. really festive feeling.

I explained to Jack's teacher that this is not a muslim thing. This is only an arab culture. We, the south east asian muslim counterparts, do not have garangao. Ohhhh what do you do then, she asked? Err nothing. It's the same thing like any other fasting night.

The school would also encourage parents to bring some goodies and chocolates to be distributed in school. And every year I would get the kids a small box of Quality Street chocolates to give away.

And what do we get in return? A biigg bag of mixed chocolate and nuts and goodies!! For each child! And this year we get three big bags of them!

Ohh I do dread this day because suddenly we get an overdose of those sweets that I really prefer the kids to refrain from. And I would quickly separate the nuts into a container. Good chocs (expensive) and bad chocs (cheap). Bubble gum falls under bad choc category. Put the good chocs in the fridge with a warning not to be eaten unless called otherwise and the bad choc in a bag to be put in lover's office and eaten by any of his guests.

So this has also become our annual affair. Our garangao is celebrated by carefully picking nuts, good chocs and bad chocs and also listening to the kids claiming which one is good and which one is not. The kids would also fight for the toys which haziq would usually lose.

That was quite a festival by itself.

14 comments:

Jill Yusoff said...

macam halloween pulak. tapi comel la beg polkadot tu.

KakNi said...

Seronok jugak tengok/layan budaya orang ni kan... Your kids mesti suker punyer kan...

mosh said...

tu lah. macam halloween pulak. so bebudak tu get to wear baju raya twice la eh?

which choc does the ibu get?

BeeLOVE said...

chocs and sweet? hurmm why not change it to fruits and veggies hahaha wishful thinking

butterflutter said...

ooo..seronok tu. But I know lah byk goodies ni maknya yg pening kepala.
One time I terjumpa a box full of chocs and sweets yg I lupa I sembunyikan.

Lollies said...

djin - ah ah. betul tu. or wait till they grow up a bit and become rude.

jill - memang macam halloween sikit. tapi tak pakai baju menakutkanlah.

mosh - ah ah. pakai twice. oklah kan sebab boleh kira berapa kali pakai baju tu. most likely twice or three times aje. ibu kalau tak bateel or patchi tak makanlah. :P

beelove - tulahkan? sungguh tak sihat

butterfulutter - hahahahhahaha. samalah dengan saya.

elisataufik said...

"Garangao" dia panggil? Kat sini dia panggil "Girgan" and it's usually after malam 20 gitu. Anak tuan punya compound would usually rent a huge bouncy castle and let the kids play in the club house, and then give out sweets. Last year I let the kids go play, but tak boleh makan sweets. Ilham cakap tension sebab asyik kena tolak.

You cerita lah kat cikgu Jack pasal malam tujuh likur, how we would walk around with lanterns, main bunga api, kutip tempurung and stack them on a stick and bakar kat laman rumah..
eh, you dont celebrate malam tujuh likur ke?

Nazrah Leopolis said...

tu la, elisa is right, we have malam tujuh likur. tapi la ni ramai orang kejar lailatul qadar sejak mercun kena ban kan?

those were happy days!!!

zan said...

awak antara ibu2 yg prihatin pasal "sugar" :) i used to throw away the bad chocs from party pack *gulp*

so u guys kat sana main mercun tak? ada ker supply?

Lollies said...

elisa - i wanted to tell about the 7 likur tapi teringat bila habis cerita aje. heh heh. tapi tulah my pengalamana 7 likur pun taklah best sangat. main bunga api and mercun aje.tak da pulak kumpul2 tempurung and all that. tak authentic langsung. and the kids tu langsung tak merasa. sebab i sendiri tak pernah pasanmg pelita.malas.

nazrah - tulah dia ek?

zan - so zan apakah definasi awak bad chocs itu?

elisataufik said...

zan,
Kat sini, makcik tudung litup tutup muka jual mercun bersila tepi supermarket!

shidah said...

patut la anak i balik bawak banyak bungkusan kacang bercampur dengan sweets. kacang2 dia semua size XXL, bila makan mcm rasa tak masak. or kena masak dulu ke? Ingatkan ada kawan dia bday party ke apa...

atiza said...

aku suka the bags..cute..

ala..sekali sekala tu just let them be kids and enjoy the sweets and chocs..

Lollies said...

elisa - what? iya ke elisa?kat sini tak ada nampak pun. bebudak arab kat sini main mercun yg exclusive aje i tengok. mana dapat tak taulah

shidah - heh heh kacang dia memang habis tak sedap. i buang je

atiza - bukannya apa. kat sini cokelat tu memang dapat all the time. banyak gila tau cokelat. susah betul nak control. serious banyak. ada aje sebab munyabab nak kasi cikelat.

tapi aku memang kasi dia orang makanlah tu. tu yg aku susunkan good chocs in the fridge. bad chocs aje yg aku buang.