A happy Sham al-Nassim. I'm envying my Egyptian readers picnicking along the Nile today. As
I noted last week in noting some Salafis oppose the holiday:
Sham al-Nassim, as I've noted in earlier years (most detailed posts here and here)
is a spring festival that coincides with the Monday after Coptic
Easter, but is celebrated by all Egyptians, Muslims and Christians alike
(and the Jewish community before its disappearance). Families picnic
along the Nile, color eggs, eat certain traditional spring vegetables
and dried fish. The name Sham al-Nassim, "smelling the breeze" in
Arabic, may also distantly echo the ancient Egyptian feast of Shemu,
also a spring festival. In any event it is generally considered one of
only two traditional holidays (the other being Wafa' al-Nil in August,
celebrating the Nile Flood before the Aswan High Dam was built, but
still celebrated today) with roots in Pharaonic times.
Also see
this article in Daily News Egypt..
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