KUWAIT: In the presence of the Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Mohammed Al-Aiban, representing HH the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the curtain will fall on Thursday on the coast of Kuwaiti Sea Sports Club on the 32nd pearl diving trip, organized by the maritime heritage committee of the club under the patronage of HH the Amir from Aug 12 to Aug 17. Sixty Kuwaiti youth are participating in the event on two diving dhows donated by late Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
The trip will conclude with the Qaffal ceremony, which will be broadcast live on television. The two ships will reach the shore, when everyone will disembark carrying their equipment and their haul of oysters, with friends and family receiving them on the beach. The Ben Hussein Folklore Band and a group of the club’s youth will present marine folk art performances, accompanied by a navy group opening the oysters. This will be followed by going to the representative of HH the Amir to display the pearl harvest.
The Qaffal ceremony will conclude with the lowering of the Kuwaiti flag, marking the end of the diving season. The diving trip began Saturday morning with the Dasha ceremony, in which the dhows left the coast of the club in Salmiya and headed to Khairan, where the young divers engaged in pearl diving over a period of five days in the same style and old traditional way practiced by the olden generation amid difficult weather conditions and high temperature and humidity.
Qaffal means the return of diving ships at the end of the diving season. It is an old and well-known term in Kuwait and GCC countries. People often held popular celebrations on the beach when the dhows returned after a long absence of more than three or four months, which could extend for longer periods. Secretary General of KSSC Khaled Al-Fouderi expressed the club’s pride and appreciation of the care by HH the Amir.
"Despite the exceptional situation experienced due to a lack of time and circumstances of preparations, we took into account this is the first trip held by the club under the sponsorship of HH the Amir, as well as the great official and popular attention it received,” Fouderi. The club invited the public and people to attend the Qaffal ceremonies and participate in the reception and accompanying events, including the performance by the folk band. He also called on everyone to wear traditional clothes.