Fireworks are a standard part of many UAE celebrations, especially during Eid. However, this year, several venues have cancelled their pyrotechnic plans. This includes The Pointe by Nakheel, and all the operators on Bluewaters Island and Al Seef in Dubai.
The Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment, which organises the Dubai Summer Surprises sale, has also announced it will not host any fireworks for Eid Al Adha this year.
The National also contacted Emaar and La Mer in Dubai, and Emirates Palace in the capital, which have not yet confirmed their plans.
The two venues that have confirmed they will be going ahead with firework displays are Dubai Festival City Mall and Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.
Festival Bay in Dubai will put on a single show on July 10 at 8pm.
In Abu Dhabi, Yas Bay Waterfront will have fireworks for all days of the long Eid weekend, at 9pm.
Fireworks aside, there will be plenty to do over the coming Eid holiday. The annual DSS event is celebrating its 25th year with lots of deals, discounts, prize draws and live entertainment.
Elsewhere, plenty of restaurants are serving Eid-themed menus as well as subsidised meals and two-for-one deals.
Or, you could book a staycation in hotels across the Emirates, many of which have attractive Eid packages.
Eid Al Adha in 2022 falls on Friday, July 8 — which marks Arafat Day — with both public and private sector employees given the whole weekend off to celebrate the holiday, including Monday, July 11.
Last year, the Eid Al Adha holiday began on Monday, July 19, and lasted until Thursday, July 22.
Scroll through the gallery below for more ideas on things to do this Eid Al Adha
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog
Hometown: Cairo
Age: 37
Favourite TV series: The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror
Favourite anime series: Death Note, One Piece and Hellsing
Favourite book: Designing Brand Identity, Fifth Edition
The years Ramadan fell in May
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
On Instagram: @WithHopeUAE
Although social media can be harmful to our mental health, paradoxically, one of the antidotes comes with the many social-media accounts devoted to normalising mental-health struggles. With Hope UAE is one of them.
The group, which has about 3,600 followers, was started three years ago by five Emirati women to address the stigma surrounding the subject. Via Instagram, the group recently began featuring personal accounts by Emiratis. The posts are written under the hashtag #mymindmatters, along with a black-and-white photo of the subject holding the group’s signature red balloon.
“Depression is ugly,” says one of the users, Amani. “It paints everything around me and everything in me.”
Saaed, meanwhile, faces the daunting task of caring for four family members with psychological disorders. “I’ve had no support and no resources here to help me,” he says. “It has been, and still is, a one-man battle against the demons of fractured minds.”
In addition to With Hope UAE’s frank social-media presence, the group holds talks and workshops in Dubai. “Change takes time,” Reem Al Ali, vice chairman and a founding member of With Hope UAE, told The National earlier this year. “It won’t happen overnight, and it will take persistent and passionate people to bring about this change.”
FIXTURES
Monday, January 28
Iran v Japan, Hazza bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)
Tuesday, January 29
UAEv Qatar, Mohamed Bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)
Friday, February 1
Final, Zayed Sports City Stadium (6pm)
