By: K02

K02 — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 05:36:19 +0000

I am not sure if there is an official rule that would apply to your questions, but I will answer them according to what I have experienced after living here for a few years:
1. The western calendar is used widely, but also the arabic calendar is used for example islamic holidays like Eid are calculated with it. In the Newspapers usually the date is printed in both calendar systems. I would assume that government would use the arabic calendar.
See for an example how dates are printed: http://www.gulfnews.com/home/http://www.khaleejtimes.com/index00.asphttp://www.thenational.ae/
2. The official weekend for the private and public sector is now (since 2007) Friday/Saturday. A few companies and schools still follow the old weekend Thursday/Friday. But most have Friday/Saturday as weekend.
3.The week starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday. Although for companies that work 6 days per week, the week would start on Saturday.
4. They are introducing an ID card wwhichwill be compulsory for everyone residing here, and wwhichwill be used for all sorts of things, for example drivers license identification and other things . I am not quite sure if it will have something like a social security number. Social security does exist in the UAE but is only for UAE nationals.The resident visa for expats is tied to the company they work for, meaning that they will only have a resident visa as long as they have a job here, so social security doesn’t apply to them.
I just checked out the official web site and there it says:
‘It contains an ID number that links every individual to his/her own personal and biological lifetime data. The number in question serves as a reference for the respective individual in his/her identity-proved transactions with government bodies and some private organizations’
See for more info on the ID card:http://www.emiratesid.ae/html/english2/1…
5. Everybody has Friday off – except for people working in the service industry, I guess because stores and restaurants are open on Friday.
On a side note: as Sunday is a working day for mos, churches have their main service /mass for the week on Friday morning.
Saturday is off for a lot of eemployeesas well, although in some companies people work a half day on Saturday.
6. Date format is 4.7.1776 (dd/mm/yyyy)
7. It depends on whether the text is written in arabic or english. But arabic numbers are also used. Most big stores price their goods in western numbers, but also I have seen both number types used parallel to each other. License plates are in western numbers, although in Sharjah until recently the number was displayed in both – western and arabic numbers. I try to recall how other Emirates have their license plates. Dubai and Abu Dhabi use western numbers, though. Numbers on the bank notes are displayed in western and arabic numbers.

Comments on: Basic Calendar And Cultural Questions About Uae?

By: K02