Omdurman Local Customs

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Every year there are celebrations for the Birthday of the Prophet Mohamed. The actual date varies because the Islamic festivals are dated according to the lunar calendar. This year the holiday was 15 February 2011. We decided to take the grandchildren to the area beside the Mahdi’s tomb and the Khalifa’s mosque in Omdurman. Similar venues are held in Khartoum and Khartoum North.
The different religious sects erect tents and flags where their followers can sit and listen to the chanting and watch the dervishes as they get carried away by the songs of praise. This is very interesting to see as they sway and move to the beat.
Crowds of people- men , women and children congregate to watch the world go by- the men in white jellabias, dervishes in green, police in blue and women and children in their best clothes together make the scene bright and colourful. Some of the tents have fairy lights or tinsel. Salesmen have spread their ways on the ground- prayers beads, religious books, inflateable plastic toys and balloons.
On the perimeter outside are stalls selling the traditional Mulid sweets : garish pink sugar brides, knights on horseback, tanks, cats, some decorated with paper frills. The sweets are made of sesame seed, coconut, candy with peanuts or chickpeas, and Turkish delight. These activities begin some time before the actual day, so on the eve of the holiday it becomes very crowded indeed. We made sure we arrived early and left at sunset.