As we celebrate the resurrection and Sham El-Nessim, the Egyptians are looking for joy and fear it at the same time. They think joy may bring bad news after all, but they love jokes and laugh till they cry! Today, the homeland is rising from death of terrorism to joy and peace.
We celebrate many feasts around the year including a number of religious and international feasts! We offered many martyrs and our hearts are full of pain, but we are looking forward to the joy of resurrection.
Few days between the Easter and the holy month of Ramadan, and in those days we celebrate the Sinai Liberation Day. Our saints and soldiers who martyred are mixed in our hearts and stories. The Egyptians learned to fast and pray when they face tribulations and find their victory inside fasting.
Fasting is always followed by feasts and the Egyptians find their feasts a chance to celebrate God, Prophets and saints in both Muslim and Christian culture.
Egypt has a mixture of the Egyptian human interaction with many civilization/ Though they are Sunnis, they celebrate Ashura on tenth of Muharram, to express their sadness for the martyrdom of Hussein, for their love in Al-Bayt and to show solidarity with the oppressed. After the collapse of the Fatimid Shiite state, the Egyptians were spending a day of mourning for Hussein fasting, but distributing sweets in public to avoid punishment of the Ayyubid family. Moreover, the Egyptian Copts mourn on the Good Friday, to remember the Crucifixion of Christ and drinking vinegar, but soon they distribute sweets in remembrance of Jesus resurrection.
Egyptian holidays consume more than six months of the year, and about 25% of the Egyptian household budget to buy new clothes, food, offerings to feed the poor. The Egyptians used to make sweets in their feasts, but with Ottoman ruling, they learned to give offerings of animals. The Greek historian Blutach mentioned that the Egyptians celebrate too many feasts each few days including the birthday of Horus, the victory of Ahmus on the Hyksos, in addition to holidays associated with agriculture such as the Flood and the Harvest Day, and birthdays such as the Pharaoh s birthday. Many happy returns.
