Cultural Heritage of UAE

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) possesses an extensive heritage of culture that spans various aspects such as architecture, sports, occupations, traditions, arts and crafts, food, lifestyle, and values influenced by the Islamic faith.

This webpage aims to provide an understanding of the esteemed Cultural Heritage of the United Arab Emirates.

The traditional culture of the UAE came from the survival skills of seafaring and nomadic people, as well as the harsh desert and sea settings they lived in every day. Before the oil economy started in the early 1960s, traditional Emirati culture was based on two key ideas. That of the nomadic, desert-living Bedouins, who did small-scale oasis farming as part of the economy and culture of the desert, and that of the seafaring culture, which was based on pearling and selling at sea. These subcultures were depending on each other in economic, political, and social ways, which gave them a shared culture and social identity. The UAE's heritage culture is very similar to that of its surrounding Arab countries and to Arab culture as a whole.

Even though trade and immigration had already changed the traditional culture of the UAE, this change sped up when oil was found and started to be used. Expats from many different countries started moving to the UAE, which made Emirati culture even more diverse.

In this article, Heritage Express will explain where Emirati culture came from and how traditional culture has changed over time. Then came the most important customs, traditions, and cultural trends in the UAE, both new and old.

Traditional Culture

Tribes have long served as the backbone of UAE society since early migration waves introduced Arab tribes from across Arabia into its regions around 1 BCE. These tribes lived across diverse terrain, from desert and oasis environments to mountains and coast. This variety in terrain shaped their traditional ways of living over many centuries. All these ways of living had one thing in common: their inhabitants managed to adapt successfully to harsh surroundings. Their longstanding social system allowed each family and tribe to help one another and remain alive. People within this tribe found honor and pride in how they treated others, which could include Christianity or native polytheistic beliefs - until eventually, an Islamic religion unified everyone within its folds.

Traditional UAE culture can be found in places where many Emiratis still go, like fishing ports, fish markets, boat-building yards, falconry centers, gold and spice souks, perfume and traditional dress shops, and even the desert, which Emiratis still like to go to on weekends and holidays. Many families still have a house and farm in the desert, which are now taken care of by guest workers. They use these places to spend time with their families and ride horses. Some of these farms are also stopped on what is called "desert safaris," which are tours where people ride camels and see goats and sheep.

Throughout the year, there are cultural events with things like races, games, exhibits, and talks. For example, the Emirates Heritage Club regularly holds races for camels, dhows, and longboats. Both Abu Dhabi's Culture and Heritage Centre and Dubai's Heritage Village feature notable cultural events and ongoing exhibits.

Maritime and Desert Culture

Emirati society was also affected by the fact that they had to use the sea to survive, whether it was for long-distance trade, piracy, or getting food from the sea. People's folk customs, foods and cooking, handicrafts, idioms, songs, dances, and many other parts of their way of life came from things they did on the water, like fishing, pearling, and boating. We can still see the effects of this maritime society today. Traditional yachts called dhows look a lot like many of the boats that are still used today for fishing, racing, or entertaining tourists, even though they have engines.

The harsh conditions of the Arabian desert also affected Emirati culture. The tribes moved around the desert in search of food and water, spending most of the time in tents or simple houses and using camels as their main means of transportation and survival. The few places with a steady supply of water, usually from underground aquifers, became semi-permanent villages with palm trees. Even the big ones, like al-Buraimi and Liwa, were home to small, partially nomad and partially farmer groups. Bedouin ideals and customs, as well as certain types of entertainment and sports, show that the culture of the desert is still alive. The annual camel and horse races are still very famous today.

Local Versus Expatriate Culture

There are various cultures in the UAE, from Arab Emirati culture and expatriate communities to those from visitors from overseas, each one differing in terms of size, effect, and visibility; their effects and relationships differ as well. Issues related to language, religion, customs, and perception can all impact how these different groups interact and react to each other resulting in links, pressures, and problems between cultures; with native people's culture constantly affected by expat cultures from abroad as more people leave, creating even greater strain on societies where they left them behind.

Persia, India, and Africa all had a profound effect on the people living in the UAE through trade with these regions as well as through immigration from these places; through trade or by simply having people from these places move into southern and south-east Arabia through trade routes or migration of people themselves; their food, language habits and way of life all became influence by these cultures in one form or another.

Food

Before the 1960s, most Emirati diets consisted of fish, rice, bread, dates, yogurt, veggies, and meat from sheep, goats, or camels. Since then, this diet has gotten better and more varied because modern shops and supermarkets sell a lot of foreign foods. Emiratis' traditional main meal is lunch, which they usually eat with their families at home around 2:00. A normal lunch includes fish, rice, meat, and a veggie dish. Emirati citizens usually follow the Muslim rules that say they can't eat pork or drink booze and that they can only eat halal meat, which is meat from animals that were slaughtered in the right way according to Islam. Due to the large number of non-Muslim expats, pork and alcohol are freely available in specially licensed supermarkets, restaurants, bars, and hotels.

Emirati cuisine has been around for thousands of years, but not many people know where some of the classic dishes and ingredients come from. Many famous Emirati dishes are based on food from East Africa, India, East Asia, and the Eastern Mediterranean, with a few staples from Britain that are always in the kitchen. A lot of Emirati food is a mix of different foods that came from other places. This includes foods like biryani, which is from India but is thought of as a national dish, along with harees and khabees.

Emiratis still like to eat seafood. They eat a lot of hamur or hamour (grouper), a prized fresh fish, and chassif, a sun-dried fish. They also eat bedh, a small, spotted white fish, and yobel, a dark-fleshed fish that is usually stingray or shark. Another example is bathitha, a sweet made with date paste, wheat flour, clarified butter, and cardamom. As a non-perishable dish, this was a choice of pearl divers on their long journeys.

Bedouin foods that are still popular today include chami, which is kind of like cottage cheese, jareesh, which is spicy crushed wheat with vegetables, harees, which are boiled, cracked, or khabees ( sweet pudding made from flour and oil), and coarsely ground wheat with meat or chicken

Emiratis are gracious hosts and enjoy socializing with friends and family. Arabic coffee and fresh dates greet guests. To scent guest rooms, incense is lit and shared around. Most national foods are cooked at home or prepared commercially for weddings and other festivals. As the UAE's immigrant population grows, more fast-food and café options are accessible to residents and expatriates.

Dress

One of the enduring symbols of Emirati culture is their traditional attire: both men and women wear white robes (kandura or dishdasha) with white head cloth (ghutra) fastened securely around their heads with special black rope (agal). For Emirati men this attire stands as both a heritage and identity symbol; women typically don saris.

Women often don long black dresses (abayas), combined with black head scarf-shawls called sheilas that cover nearly the entirety of the head and hair, in accordance with Islamic tradition. More conservative women often also don niqabs to cover their face- either fully or leaving just their eyes visible- in order to remain conservative and practice Islam in private life.

Material wealth has led to greater variety in men's and women's dress. Some men may occasionally don colorful kanduras (in black, blue, or gold hues), with either red-or black-striped varieties of the ghutra as an accessory; women have evolved their gowns into fashion statements through decoration, embroidery, and color of both their abaya and sheila designs - including modifications in decoration embroidery color or style for each. Younger generations have also begun adopting items from Western culture into their daily dress; many young men now regularly don colorful baseball caps while many young women wear jeans beneath their abaya.

Music and Dance

Music and dance were always integral parts of life in the UAE. Songs were composed to accompany certain jobs like collecting water from wells or diving for pearl crabs in the Gulf, and there would often be paid song leaders on pearling dhows as well. Music was used to rouse men to work through song and melody. When the nahaan began singing, all sailors joined in while working. Each song featured an upbeat beat that fit with certain tasks and made people work more cohesively together - similar to sea shanties from Western ships. At parties, people also sang and danced along. Songs and dances passed down through generations have endured to this day. Young girls would dance to the strong beat of the music while swinging their long black hair back and moving their bodies; men used sticks, swords, or rifles to act out fights or hunting trips that often served as symbolic acts.

As more international residents arrive to live in UAE and Gulf regions, many different forms of singing and dance have emerged to meet the cultural expectations of listeners who tune into local radio and TV stations that show songs and dances from all around the globe. There's even plenty of Western, Indian, and Arabic music heard around these regions!

Art and Literature

Most people in the UAE are familiar with Nabati songs. Beautiful songs are written in the spoken language by poets from the area. Poetry has become the most common form of art. This may be because spoken word has always been the best form of art for tribal people, who usually didn't have the raw materials used in other forms of art. So, as a part of their culture, they cared more about oral history than written history. Local songs can be about anything, from local leaders to love.

There are many literary events and competitions in the UAE. One of the most well-known is the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, which has been going on since 2008 and gives out big cash prizes every year to the best works of fiction by Arab writers from all over the world. Also important and around for a long time is the Sultan bin Ali al-Owais Cultural Award. It is named after a businessman and humanitarian from the UAE. Since the mid-1980s, it has been given in a number of fields, such as poetry and literary review. Fewer people are making art, but more people are going to art shows.

Performing Arts and Festivals

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) plays host to a growing number of high-profile international music and film festivals, fairs, and concerts, including an annual international theater festival in Sharjah. These worldwide entertainment events take place all around the United Arab Emirates.

Arab, Indian, and Western bands and singers regularly visit the UAE to perform for the country's large native, expat, tourist, and visitor audiences.

Both the Louvre and Guggenheim museums recently established outposts on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. The Museum of the Future opened in Dubai on February 22, 2022, and it features exhibits on the future of healthcare, aviation, transportation, and smart cities, among other topics. Arabic calligraphy serves as both windows and ornamentation for the building's innovative design.

Sports

UAE citizens still love their traditional sports, like falconry, hunting, horse and camel races, and dhow racing. Some of the richest and most famous horse and camel races in the world take place in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Formula 1 racing has started. Abu Dhabi has built an amazing autodrome where international Formula One Grand Prix races will take place.

Dubai hosts world-class tennis and golf competitions. The Dubai Marathon, a popular annual marathon with big financial rewards, draws people from around the world. Dubai spent extensively on Sports City, a multi-purpose complex. However, football (soccer) is the most popular sport, followed by rugby and cricket. Water sports, rock climbing, desert rallies, horseback riding, and indoor ice skating are notable.

UAE qualified for the 1990 World Cup. 2007 and 2013 Arabian Gulf Cups. 2003 FIFA U-20 World Cup, UAE. FIFA placed the UAE national football team 70th in December 2022.

Conclusion

Abu Dhabi's history is an extraordinary tale of endurance and perseverance, interlaced with tales of Bedouin resilience and a rapid transformation. This combination of cultures and customs plays an integral part in making UAE what it is today. Emiratis have been at the core of Abu Dhabi's rapid development; however, its animals - from beautiful horses and camels to fast Salukis and smart falcons - have also played an influential role in shaping Abu Dhabi's cultural legacy. You can learn more about the heritage culture of the UAE and the traditions of the Emiratis by going on one of the many cultural and heritage trips and activities. Choose one of their cultural or heritage trips and activities and experience it for yourself - individual travelers, families, groups of friends, or larger parties are sure to have an incredible time with Heritage Express Service!