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LoginResearchers, Musicians Tell QNA Folk Arts Maintained Eid Joy, National Cultural Identity Across Generations
Doha, May 27 (QNA) - Qatar's enduring folk vocabulary - carried forward despite rapid modern change - remains viscerally ingrained in the nation's collective memory, serving as a living archive of ancestral identity, heritage, and long-held traditions passed from generation to generation.
At the heart of this legacy are Qatar's vibrant folk arts, long considered the cultural heartbeat of Eid celebrations. These traditions have been meticulously preserved through audio-visual recordings archived by the Qatar Media Corporation, as well as through extensive documentation by Qatari heritage scholars, ensuring their survival as a cross-generational cultural inheritance.
Qatar News Agency (QNA) reached a bunch of heritage researchers, cultural critics, and musicians who clarified that these folk arts function as a historical record capturing the joy of Eid, firmly rooted in national identity and carried forward as an integral part of Qatar's cultural DNA.
Writer, journalist, and music critic Ibrahim Al Mutawa noted that Qatar's and the Gulf's rich folkloric traditions overflow with time-honored chants and communal songs tied to life's major occasions - from Eid and weddings to work, seafaring, and pearl-diving voyages - each with its own artistic signature and expressive style.
He emphasized that the late composer Abdulaziz Nasser played a pivotal, era-defining role in safeguarding this musical heritage, leaving behind iconic works that resonated across the Gulf and the Arab world since the 1970s.
Musicians and heritage researchers note that among the traditional songs worked on by Abdulaziz Nasser, one of the most enduring is "Ya Al-Aido", which was recorded for Qatar Radio in 1970 and quickly became part of the nation's cultural soundscape.
They emphasize that Nasser retained the original text and the folk sensibility of the piece while composing a melody deeply rooted in heritage and local tradition, crafting it to reflect the festive spirit of Eid using the well-known "Al-Daza" rhythm, a pattern familiar across Qatar and the Gulf that is commonly performed at weddings and holiday celebrations.
They add that the song achieved widespread popularity and remains a staple of holiday festivities to this day, alongside other folk works that have been documented as part of the Eid celebration repertoire, such as "Bajer Al Eid" and "Al-Aidooh".
Writer and critic Ibrahim Al Mutawa points out that Nasser drew on his artistic instincts to highlight the most socially and humanistically resonant aspects of traditional heritage, reinforcing shared values and customs while presenting them in an evolved artistic form that complements the nature of these folk arts.
This approach, he says, has helped safeguard these traditions and their distinctive expressions from fading over time.
Faisal Al Tamimi, a heritage researcher and composer, said that folk arts reflect past social life including practices professions functions and community roles, affirming that they are associated with specific seasons occasions professions and social customs.
Eid is considered one of the most prominent occasions documented in folk arts. The children's refrain “Eidkum Mubarak ya Ahl al-Bayt” evolved over time into a traditional folk chant still performed today, he noted.
Heritage researcher and composer Faisal Al Tamimi said that some enthusiasts of folk arts have introduced new rhythmic and melodic elements into traditional forms. While some describe this as modernization, he avoids that framing, arguing that it is ultimately a matter of taste and audience perception.
He suggests that the most accurate description is "innovation" rooted in traditional foundations.
Al Tamimi noted that Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha have long been documented through folk performance traditions, including the women's "Al-Muradah" chant-dance.
This practice, he says, involves women gathering during Eid in a private setting, performing in two opposing lines, and engaging in unaccompanied call-and-response chanting based on spontaneous, unstructured verses.
Al Muradah is described as a collective performance combining group movement and vocal chanting without instrumental accompaniment, characterized by synchronized footwork, rhythmic swaying, and alternating vocal exchanges between two facing groups, Al Tamimi recalled.
The performance, he said, unfolds through structured turns of singing and response until both groups converge, concluding in collective chanting. Participants traditionally wear embroidered festive garments and gold jewelry during Eid celebrations.
Al Tamimi also noted that men mark Eid through the "Al-Ardah" sword dance, performed after afternoon prayers in public gathering spaces such as central squares and coastal areas, with historical performances also held in various traditional neighborhoods.
Qatari composer and artist Matar Ali Al Kuwari told QNA that folk arts in Qatar constitute a major pillar of the country's cultural heritage, expressing concern that much of this legacy has not been systematically documented beyond limited individual efforts by writers and musicians.
He stressed that Qatari folk heritage isn't a single genre but a broad cultural ecosystem encompassing emotional songs, maritime music, Ardah performances, Samri traditions, children's songs, social customs, folk games, and traditional crafts that collectively reflect national identity.
Al Kuwari said he has personally worked on developing and reinterpreting myriad traditional forms, including Samri, vocal traditions, Ardah, and children's songs, such as rain chants, and has contributed to children's folk operettas through the Ministry of Culture's theatre department.
He added that his ambition goes beyond isolated artistic projects, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive national framework to systematically document and preserve folk heritage.
Al Kuwari called for official institutional preservation of Qatari heritage through a dedicated committee to collect and document folk culture, emphasizing that what matters more is transforming heritage into living cultural production through modern Qatari artistic expression rather than static memory.
He stressed that Eid in Qatar is deeply tied to intimacy, simplicity and shared cultural memory, with children's Eid experience being highly anticipatory beginning after Garangao and continuing with excitement until Eid morning.
Eid songs are a key part of collective memory, including works associated with Salim Faraj and Gulf festive traditions. He noted that children's traditional chants as part of neighborhood-level cultural life during Eid.
Al Kuwari emphasized the importance of preserving these lived cultural details as part of Qatar's intangible heritage for future generations. (QNA)
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