The Last Spring

Chapter one: Spring

Today is Thursday, it'sthe weekend;the familyof HadjRabie is impatiently awaiting the arrival of the father who is often absent from home, monopolized during the week by his work in the west of the country, while his family still continues to reside and live in the household in the central highlands' region. He announced his arrival by phone as usual.

The Weekend is not only one or two days of rest, a kind of idleness or a break for vacation, it has other meanings, and among them, a strong dose of sacredness. Moreover, Circumcision, engagement and wedding parties only take place on weekends, and very rarely on other days of the week.

Usually, during the weekend, we stock up on various products to cover household consumption for at least a week.

Men, in general and those active in particular, choose the weekend to go to the Hammam for ablutions, body massage and fitness for the needy.

The weekend is a friendly event, families often get together with grandparents or in-laws, children meet and play together, and women talk and discuss everything, while preparing delicious meals.

It's Friday, the day that gives the weekend a sacred aspect, everyone gets ready, men dress properly, usually in white; they join the Masjids of the neighborhoods or those of their choice to perform the Friday prayer. For an hour, they listen religiously to the Friday sermon and perform the prayer before returning home with a light heart.

For all this and other reasons, our country has known three different kinds of weekends for barely half a century.

The first weekend inherited at the independence of the country; said to be universal. It is a common practice throughout the world. It is said to be the culmination of practices linked to ancestral customs and or relating to religious acts. For others, the weekend is above all, the fruit of labor and union struggles which have forced the employers and the public authorities to give the needy a break, a kind of mutually useful compromise which is necessary for them; it has become an acquired right. Workers rest at least one day a week, which becomes unemployed and paid.

For the second formula of the Algerian weekend that was promulgated in 1976, hastily. It is inscribed with another date of rupture apart of the rest of the world, but it is also said that it is more or less responding to a leitmotif constantly reiterated by a segment of the population who want to appropriate Fridays. This weekend rather overlaps the days of Thursday and Friday, and therefore prolongs the inactivity at least internationally for four working days in a row.

Generally, for Algerians, the objective of this change was simply to allow the population to attend the great Friday prayer.

The third weekend currently in force was promulgated in 2009, it corrects the second formula by making up for an international working day, that of Thursday, without offending the sensitivity of Muslims who are very attached and more than ever; to the great Friday prayer and thus the Algerians rest on Friday and Saturday of each week.

It is now past 4 p.m., the long-awaited father is still not there, the children are on the lookout, they are watching for their dad, they are waiting for him to knock on the door at any time, his arrival is imminent.

The two little girls are ready to run first towards this door which has become miraculous and from which their beloved father will spring and enter. they will rub themselves and snuggle up against him, to feel his paternal scent and the caress of his hands on their cheeks and on their heads.

The arrival of the father is now imminent according to their mother who has just spoken to him on the phone.

« Mom...mom... when is Dad arriving?... Mom, are you listening?» Amel screamed.