Dumat Al-Jandal Dates Festival: A rich heritage and rare historical artifacts

Dumat al-Jandal transforms annually into a prominent cultural and heritage destination. Visitors to the Dates Festival before a historical spectacle showcasing the deep connection between the Arab people and the date palm and dates since ancient times. The festival is not merely a commercial market; it offers a window into the past, illustrating how our ancestors relied on dates as a primary source of food security in a harsh desert environment, and how the date palm formed a cornerstone of the social and economic life of the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula.

This interest is consistent with the high religious status of the palm tree, as the festival highlights the Qur’anic texts and the noble prophetic hadiths that mentioned palm trees and dates, highlighting their blessings and great benefits, thus adding a spiritual and cultural dimension to the visitors’ experience.

Date Museum: A living memory of heritage tools

Dates Museum, the festival's most prominent pavilion, serves as a vital educational and cultural center. It showcases a rare collection of ancient tools and implements invented by humans for preserving, processing, and storing dates for extended periods. Through visual displays and detailed explanations, visitors learn about the significance of date palms in Islamic heritage, as well as popular terms and expressions associated with the harvest season (Al-Saram) and the various date varieties for which the Kingdom in general, and the Al-Jawf region in particular, are renowned.

The genius of preservation and storage in ancient times

The museum's halls showcase tools that reflect the ingenuity of ancient humans in dealing with available resources, and among the most important of these exhibits are:

• The Khabia: It is a container made of pottery, often square or cylindrical in shape, and was used to store dates and protect them from moisture and insects, thus ensuring that they remained edible for long periods.
• The Shanna: It is considered one of the most famous traditional preservation methods in the Arabian Peninsula. It is a bag made from tanned sheepskin and is used to preserve pressed dates (the treasure); as it contributes to keeping the dates soft and preserving their quality and taste for several years.
• The "Jassa " is a small, domestic storage room, usually built of mud, stone, and plaster, and used to store large quantities of dates. It features a bottom opening that allows for the extraction of date syrup (molasses) produced by pressing the dates together, and a small door for removing the dates when needed.

The museum also includes traditional weighing and measuring tools such as the “measure” and the “sa’a”, and provides detailed explanations about the parts of the palm tree and its multiple uses in the manufacture of home furniture and agricultural tools, which confirms that the palm tree was a full partner in the lives of the ancestors, nothing from it was thrown away.

The cultural and economic importance of the Al-Jawf region

These events hold particular significance in the Al-Jawf region, considered the Kingdom's breadbasket and renowned for its millions of date palms. The festival serves to reinforce the region's cultural identity, particularly its famous "Halwat Al-Jawf" dates, and to underscore the continuity of this rich agricultural heritage. These festivals also contribute to boosting tourism and the economy, aligning with the Kingdom's vision of preserving intangible heritage and supporting national products in reaching global markets.