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Egyptian Festival Foodways

Festival

RAMADAN is the largest food season of the year: the iftar at sunset opening with DATES and often with a soup, usually lentil; qatayef and kunafa made only now; qamar el-din, erk sous and kharroub; the fanous lanterns; the MAWAID AL-RAHMAN, free public tables at which strangers are fed, which is a documented Egyptian institution of charity; and the suhoor before dawn, typically ful and cheese. EID AL-FITR brings KAHK, baked in enormous quantity and shared. EID AL-ADHA brings the sacrifice and a documented distribution of the meat in thirds, and FATTA is its dish. ⚠ SHAM EL-NESSIM is the one that needs care: a SPRING FESTIVAL kept by Egyptians of all religions on the Monday after Coptic Easter, eaten with FESEEKH, salted renga, spring onion, lettuce and coloured EGGS. Its name is Arabic for "the breath of the breeze"; it is widely and popularly linked to the ancient Shemu harvest festival, and a continuity of that kind is plausible and NOT conclusively documented — so this system records the modern practice as certain and the pharaonic descent as an interpretation. MOULIDS — saints’ days, both Muslim and Coptic — have their own sweets, especially the sugar dolls and HALAWET AL-MOULID.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Copts community documented

Languages: Egyptian Arabic, Coptic

What is recorded

  • Sham el-Nessim is documented as a spring festival kept by Egyptians of all religions on the Monday following Coptic Easter, eaten with feseekh, salted renga, spring onion, lettuce and coloured eggs. Its name is Arabic for the breath of the breeze. Its popular identification with the ancient Shemu harvest festival is recorded as a plausible interpretation and not as a documented continuity. Mawaid al-Rahman, free public Ramadan tables, are a documented Egyptian institution. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • related to Coptic Foodways documented

    ⚠ Sham el-Nessim is kept by Egyptians of all religions on the Monday after Coptic Easter. Its pharaonic descent is an interpretation, not a documented continuity.

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