Oman National Day

 

Today (November 18th) is Oman National Day. However, it is NOT a holiday. That means I am writing this article at work.

The national day is linked to the Sultan's Birthday. Every street, hotel, road sign is garlanded with lights, the colors of which reminds the colors of the National Flag. On about 40km of highway (from Muscat to Barka), flags have been put on in the middle of the highway (given there is a flagpole every 100m or so, you do the maths...).

Huge pictures of the Sultan have been put on buildings (there is one on the highway near Al Khuwair on seaside). At Carrefour in Qurum, you can buy flags and Sultan's pictures (there is a national day corner).

I have to say the lights on the highway are really nice, they should think about leaving them on all year long.

The rotating holidays in Oman

As said earlier, the national day is not a holiday by itself. The Sultan decides few days before the national days which day(s) will be granted as days off.

For instance, we have got to know that, for this year only, Nov. 26th and 27th will be off.

Will these holidays have any influence on attendance in my workplace ? I doubt it. We're probably going to come since the project has to move on.

It's tricky for business, I assume, since you only know the holidays date one week in advance. Can you imagine planning a meeting long time in advance and having to cancel at the last minute because of national holiday ? That must be embarrassing when you make people come from abroad. However, I kinda like it since it is very different from western countries where holidays are planned years in advance.

I should get used to it though. Indeed, most holidays, and alike, are rotating from one year to the other. For dates based on the Gregorian calendar, the actual holidays are at Sultan's discretion. For holidays based on moon cycles (for Muslim holidays for instance), it varies every year due to the discrepancy between lunar and solar cycles.