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| A QMA poster announcing the Garangao celebrations |
The National Museum of Qatar will host Garangao celebrations on July 31 and August 1 at the ‘Olympics through Media’ exhibition in the Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) gallery, Katara building number 10.
The celebrations will take place between 8.30 and 10.30pm and will include musical entertainment, storytelling sessions and craft activities.
The ‘Olympics through Media’ exhibition has been organised to coincide with the XXX Olympiad in London, and will run until September 9. The exhibition has been jointly organised by the Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum and the Qatar Museums Authority’s Media Collections department and features a series of rare archive documentaries and films of the Olympic Games since 1896 as well as a collection of historical media equipment, photographs, and other visual imagery.
The exhibition includes the ‘Light and Shadow’ photo competition which features a first prize of QR2,000 as well as a children’s lounge and video games competition and a big screen broadcasting live coverage of the London games.
The exhibition is open daily from 9am until noon and then 7pm until midnight from Saturday to Thursday and from 7pm until midnight on Fridays, and admission is free of charge.
Garangao is a children’s festival celebrated in the Gulf, primarily in Qatar. It is celebrated on the 14th day of Ramadan.
The origin of the word “Garangao” or “Gargee’aan” comes from the Arabic word “Gara” which is the sound of things knocking together, such as the sound of the nuts and sweets in the bag as children carry them around their neck, or the sound of the knocking of the children at people’s doors or even the sound of the stones that children carry while singing the Garangao song and visiting houses.
Children (typically up to the age of 10) dress in traditional costumes after Maghreb prayers and gather in the family house to go out to collect goodies from those in the neighborhood, or in public places such as the souk while singing the Garangao song. The modest treats of the past have been replaced with more elaborate chocolates and gift baskets.