Why not host an Arabian Nights Fantasy Night?
Arabian Night Costume Ideas include:
- Belly Dancers
- Snakes
- Camels
- Arabian Men
- Sheiks
- Genie
- Aladdin
- Sinbad
- Sultan
- Snake Charmer
We mentioned a couple of years ago that on August 10th 1876, Edward Lane died. He was a translator of the 1001 Arabian Nights, a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales, said to be used by one Princess Scheherazade to ‘entertain’ her new husband Shahryar. Because Shahryer had a habit of having his wives executed after a night or so, Scheherazade became the master (mistress) of the cliff-hanger ending, refusing to reveal the ending of stories until the following night, and then starting another with a similar undisclosed finish. Thus she managed to stay alive.
For most, the best known of these ‘Nights’ tales are Aladdin and Ali Baba, through their pantomime versions, but recently one of the major TV networks has been showing a new series based on the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. There have previously been a few Sinbad feature films – you can catch the early work of Jane ‘Solitaire/Dr Quinn’ Seymour and Patrick ‘Dr Who’ Troughton in ‘Eye of the Tiger’ (1977) and the voices of Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones were amongst those involved in the 2003 ‘Legend of the Seven Seas’ animated version – but this new series might reawaken interest in all things Arabian.