Weddings in any culture are a cause for expensive fanfare and hectic preparations. In the Arabian Gulf, however, weddings are conducted in a unique manner, observant of the gender segregation maintained between nationals in other facets of their private lives.
Ashurra, is celebrated by Sunni Muslims (Qatar is mostly Sunni, although there are a number of Shiite expats living and working here) as the day Noah's ark found ground, the day Abraham was born and the day the Kabaah*, the holiest place in Islam, was built.
Little is known of Qatar's early history although Qatar was respectively inhabited by stone age people, the Kingdom of Dilmun, probably visited by the Greeks and Romans and periodically by travelling nomads.