Queen hopes ‘Jana’ will be ‘light guest’

AMMAN — Her Majesty Queen Rania expressed hope on Thursday that the blizzard expected to hit Jordan will be “a light guest”.

The Queen shared a photo via her Instagram account of two penguins saying that all their fellow penguins went to Jordan, in reference to the extremely low temperatures expected during the snowstorm. 

In the post, Queen Rania welcomed the Kingdom’s “visitors”, hoping that their stay in Jordan during the storm would be “light”, using a hashtag of the impending storm’s name “Jana”.

Jordanians have been following a trend of naming snowstorms using girls’ names.

The name Jana, which in Arabic means earn or reap, was used in optimism for the blizzard to bring good yields.

The photo received over 14,000 likes and some 800 comments in three hours.  

Followers of the Queen’s account expressed their hopes for a safe blizzard, appreciating Her Majesty’s “sense of humour”.

“You are the queen of optimism,” Noor Qudsi commented.

“May God bring the best… Welcome Jana,” Abood Kotali said.

Another user, Niveen Diab, said Jordanians are used to the Queen’s “kindness and sense of humour”.

A polar front and depression centred over Cyprus started affecting the Kingdom on Wednesday, bringing rain and light snow to high mountains. 

The cold spell, which prompted the government to declare Thursday a public holiday, is expected to intensify during the weekend, bringing heavy snow and rain.