Qaranqasho, children’s celebration held in the middle of the holy month of Ramadhan came back with a bang this week after two years break.
Along with it came the debates on whether it is too commercial or has it gone away from the main purpose.
I remember covering Qaranqasho in the 1990s in Qurum, where children gathered and under the supervision of few parents the children visited homes for treats. They carried bags to collect their goodies and sang together the Qaranqasho song. Kids look forward to the event and are slowly introduced to the beauty of the holy month of Ramadhan.
Even before Ramadhan began this year gift shops were lined up with materials for Qaranqasho from decorations to gifts. The children carried stones for acoustic accompaniment as they sang.
Um Saif grew up in Sidab, Muscat, and she remembers her Qaranqasho in the 1980s. Behind their house they had a mountain and so stones were readily available. She pointed out that the stones had to be of similar size. The families in the neighbourhood would give popcorn and halwa to children. She remembered how they would wear new dress just like Eid. They had more fun, she says now her children go to the neighbours and are given chocolates, toys and balloons. But in Musannah, 100 km away from Muscat, in the 90s kids had begun to incorporate milk cans in the place of stones. “They made louder noise than the stones'', said Nasser Harrassi, looking back at his days of Qaranqasho. Gifts might have changed and the means of acoustics might have evolved, but children of today still sing the same song and the spirit of Qaranqasho continues.
There were gatherings held in many places. Bahla Souq had a special function for the children bringing back the souq to relevancy for the young generation. So did Sidab and Musannah along with many other places. New memories were generated and if there was some extra effort then it could be the impact of coming out of the pandemic.
Maybe there was an extra zest to the activities this year. While the debate continues on the origin of Qaranqasho , the children are probably going through their goodies bag and cherishing the evening.
Not just the children, people are in the mood for giving and Qaranqasho is a wonderful opportunity to create joy and spread it among the young ones.
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