Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Mageena Ya Mageena

In the good old days during the last ten days of Ramadhan, when I was about seven we used to gather all the kids in the street and go knocking on doors singing “Gargeea’an oow Gargeea’an” that was in a different city in Iraq, In Baghdad and Mousl the Children used to sing Mageena Ya Mageena, anyhow the owners of the house we used to go to had to give us treats, like candy and sweets, I think its about like the Halloween “trick or treat” thing, it used to be very joyful and the Mother of a house should get ready days earlier for this occasion.

Of course that was a long time ago.

Al-Baghdadiya Satellite channel has this black comedy program called “Nus Akhmas” which literally means “folding stock rifle” and there objective is the terrible events each day in Baghdad.

It has a song in the End…they use the Mageena song that children used to sing.

Last verse goes like “Mageena ya Mageena, Hatha al Watan Tha’a min Eedena”

translated to “ Mageena Ya Mageena, we lost our country out of our hands”

2 comments:

mariestaad said...

I find this so incredibly sad. It's so heartbreaking and frustrating. And you are right, the children collecting sweets is like Halloween in the U.S.

Anonymous said...

I think it is much more similar to Christmas carolling. People used to go door to door and sing Christmas songs and they would be given treats and drinks. (I'm going to ask my iraqi friends about the songs you mentioned.)
I'm glad that people are making comedy about the situation. Humour is essential for surviving the unbearable.