Page 5 - Protestant Missionary Activity in the Arabian Gulf

FOREWORD:

CHRISTMAS IN KUWAIT

" ’Eidkum bar ale," (May your holiday'- be blessed!) "Wa
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ajiyamalruE sa’eeda," (And may your days be happy!) came back

thetraditional response. Singly or in small groups the guests •i

trooped by from morning until nightfall, several hundred in

all, stopping to pay their respects? drink a cup of coffee,

and chat a bit about the old days* It was Christmas Day, 1972,

and I was visiting with the Scudders, an American missionary
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family living in Kuwait. The house in which Dr. and Mrs.

Scudder were receiving their guests was a sturdy, handsome,

one-level mud and coral-rock house that had been built in

1916 b3r the first missionaries to Kuwait. In outward appear­

ance it was much like an Indian bungalow, with wide shaded

verandas and deep-set window-casements to keep out the sum­
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mer heat. Inside the floors were richly covered with fine ■».

Persian carpets from Esfahan and Shiraz and the walls were : s
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decorated with brass trays from India, coffee pots from ! f

Arabia and inlaid furniture from Damascus.
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The ’Eid-calling custom, as Dr. Scudder explained, was

originally an Arab one. To celebrate ’Eid al-Eitr at the end

of Ramadan and ’Eid al-Adtha several weeks later the leading

families of Kuwait would "sit" at home and receive callers,

i starting at seven in the morning and continuing to five at

night. Por calling purposes the town was divided into three

sections: the "Sharq" or area east of the Seef Palace, the

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