TOGETHER: Visitors to the Qatar Pavilion strike a pose during Eid, earlier this week.       
Picture courtesy @guillaumerzo on Instagram. Right: TRADITIONAL: Visitors trying out traditional Qatari attire. Picture courtesy @ali_dell on Instagram


By Anand Holla


While the nation fastidiously celebrated the holy month of Ramadan and brought in Eid al-Fitr in fine style once again, around 5,400km away the Qatar Pavilion at the ongoing Expo Milano 2015 gave scores of visitors from all over the world a taste of its tradition and a feel of its celebrations.
More than a million people, of the total six million registered for the Expo, have visited the Qatar Pavilion and toured its innovative solutions for food security. With the theme for this year’s Expo being ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life’, the Qatar Pavilion has chosen ‘Seeding Sustainability. Innovative Solutions for Food Security’ as its theme.
From distributing Qatari dates to the pavilions of the Arab and Islamic countries at the start of Ramadan, to offering face-painting for kids as part of Eid celebrations, the Qatar Pavilion has been rather versatile in its programme. During Ramadan, a special area was allocated in the Pavilion for Arabic calligraphy. Visitors and art lovers thronged this section to know more about it and ended up receiving their names written in Arabic as gifts.
Offering the Eid ‘fowala’ – the traditional dish for welcoming guests and celebrating Eid – was just one of the several attractions that the Pavilion had laid out in terms of delicious Qatari cuisine. Apart from live Qatari music performances and dozens of interesting presentations on sustainability, Garangao – a popular traditional children’s party celebrated after the breaking of the fast on the 14th night of Ramadan – caught a lot of attention.
“Garangao represents the strength of social solidarity and celebrates values such as generosity that are shared within the entire Qatari society taking part in this important celebration,” says a note on the event by the Qatar Pavilion, “This event is a moment where love and care for family and children are shown and feelings are shared among community members. Moreover, it is a very entertaining event… children gather in groups and walk from house to house while singing the Garangao song and beating the rhythm by using two stones. Also, they carry a special squared bag, traditionally sewed by mothers for this occasion, to collect sweets and dried fruits offered by their neighbours.”
Eid celebrations at the Qatar Pavilion packed in everything from a recreated glimpse into a traditional Qatari wedding to cooking shows and henna nights. For the World’s Table Parade, it presented authentic Qatari dishes such as Mashgool. Earlier this week, the Qatar Pavilion also participated in the Bread Day Parade by showcasing the traditional Qatari bread Raqaq.
Through its elaborate pavilion that blends the finest of technology and tradition, Qatar wants to showcase its “commitment to safe, healthy and convenient food” at the Expo. In the words of the organisers, the Qatar Pavilion is presenting “the latest technologies in a holistic, interactive and informative experience: it creates an oasis of innovation, invention, energy, industry and green technologies.”
Highlighting the Qatari hospitality at the pavilion sprawled across 2,451 sqm of the Expo, is the Sofra, where the local Qatari food customs and their evolution in time are shown on an interactive dining table with video projections of native and present local diet, and traditional dishes along with a section including physical objects used to welcome guests. Around it there are videos, graphic panels, a heritage and customs wall related to Qatari festivals celebration, a children’s art wall and the Food Security Matrix that offers the visitors a full experience of Qatari practices such as Ramadan and the coffee ritual.
While the Souq on the ground floor takes visitors through Qatar’s cuisine and culture trail, the Al Jefeer on the top floor is what they call the jewel of the Qatar Pavilion. “Whilst its exterior of arabesque patterns evoke the richness of Qatar’s heritage, the story it tells inside is one of the future where green technologies take centre-stage,” the organisers say.
You can enter www.virtual.expo2015.org/qatar, from PC, smartphones or tablet, to take a virtual tour of the Qatar Pavilion.
Expo is a world exhibition organised every five years. The first World Expo was held in London in 1851. Every World Expo adopts a specific theme with a global interest. The World Expo analyses the challenges faced by all mankind and demonstrates state-of-the-art technologies. With the increasing scarcity of food, the World Expo highlighted and shed light on this problem. Expo Milano 2015 is on from May 1 to October 31, 2015, featuring more than 140 participating countries.

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