Bahrain’s National Day

The King’s vision and a cultural achievement for the nation:
- Folk Culture Journal begins its ninth year.
- Recognition from major universities throughout the world.
- Issues available on paper, in electronic form and on CDs.
- Bahrain’s message about heritage available in six languages on the website.
- Hard copies are available at major retail outlets in most countries.
- Consistent growth in the number of personal and organisational subscriptions and renewals.
- Website has over a million visitors from 190 countries around the world.
- Long articles published in booklets and distributed to readers.
- Significant presence at international book fairs around the world.

Since we started work on the "Folk Culture" Journal, we have faced great challenges. However, dreams know no limits, and our success is a result of much effort and of the grace of God Almighty.

I remember a senior official who supported the project saying, “You may be able to publish the first issue, but are you confident that this will continue?” We accepted the challenge, and have been distributing the journal on a regular basis.

This issue marks the start of the "Folk Culture" Journal’s ninth year. It has been eight years of hard work and collaboration with folklore and humanities experts with the support of our readers.Experts have shown great interest in writing for our journal. The panel that reviews submissions has very high standards, which means that we cannot publish every submission we receive. This refereed approach has made "Folk Culture" a world-class scientific journal that is recognised by universities across the world.

We put a collection of issues on CDs to facilitate distribution and extend the Journal’s reach. We provide abstracts of the published papers in Arabic, English and French, and - in response to demand - we will now make the abstracts available online in Spanish, Russian and Chinese. This means that the Word from the Editor and the abstracts will be available in six languages.

Our IT department has provided a report on our website’s statistics in the section entitled Asdaa’ (Echoes). Over the past three years, our Journal has participated in Arab and international book fairs. We would like to thank all the individuals and institutions that support the Folk Culture Magazine.
We express our gratitude to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain and his reforms, to Minister of the Royal Court His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and to His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Jaber Al Ansari. I would also like to thank the members of scientific and advisory bodies, and all our writers and readers. A result of the King’s vision, the Folk Culture Journal is a cultural achievement for the nation.

Congratulations to the people of Bahrain on this glorious National Day, and congratulations to a nation that stands united despite all challenges.

Ali Abdullah Khalifa
Editor in Chief