Folklore and festivals  

  Festival time in Egypt finds everyone outdoors, following processions in the streets, strolling along the Nile, or filling the parks and gardens. Vendors sell snacks and refreshing drinks, and the crowds eagerly pay court to itinerant performances. Wrestlers, dancers and singers all put on open-air shows, happily collecting coins at the end of the performance. A favourite diversion is the mock-battle called El-Tahtib: two men, armed with stout reed staffs, face each other and walk in a circle while swinging the staffs above their heads. It looks like a courtly dance, but each combatant is tingling with alertness, waiting for the opportunity to take a swing at his opponent. A split-second of inattention by one player, and the heavy staff of the other speeds down. But there's time to parry, and the two weapons meet with a resounding thwack. With equally-matched players. El Tahtib becomes a graceful ceremony of smooth movements and mutual respect. By let a wily old master take on a young and inexperienced hot-blood, and the blows fall thick and fast. Strength and agility are less important than experience and alertness , and the old man always ends up teaching the novice a few fine tricks.

  In Upper Egypt, Nubian folklore and music is very different from the Arabic folklore of Cairo and the Delta. Nubians have their own languages (though most speak Arabic as well), and traditional Nubian music sounds surprisingly Far Eastern in its tonalities and rhythms. All Egyptians are united in the celebration of major Islamic and traditional festivals. The National spring Festival, shemen-Nessim, comes on the Monday following Coptic Easter. It's an excuse for everyone to get outdoors or into boats on the Nile in order to obey an old legend. "He who sniffs the first spring zephyr", so it goes, "will have good health all year". Another major holiday is Muliden-Nabi, the Prophet's Birthday, when a mammoth procession winds through Cairo's streets, imitated by smaller ones in other cities.

  Ramadan is a period of 30 days in the ninth month of the Moslem lunar calendar. During this time, all good Moslems observe strict fasting between the hours of sunrise and sunset. The rules are strict: no food or drink, no smoking or even licking a stamp beginning at first light. Working hours are also reduced. The fast is broken at sunset, and special dishes fill the feast tables for the early evening breakfast meal or iftar. Children pregnant women, travelers and the infirm are exempted from the fast , and everyone else takes advantage of shorter working hours for the convenience of non-Moslem visitors though many stop serving alcoholic drinks, At the end of the holy month comes Ramadan Bairam  (eid el Fitr). A three-day celebration marked by gifts or greeting cards, and visits among friends .

  Perhaps the most sacred of Moslem festivals, Qurban Bairam (Eid el-Adha) comes in the middle of the month of Zu'i-Hegga, when many Moslems make the Hajj, or pilgrimages, to Mecca. The four-day feast commemorates the biblical near sacrifice by Abraham of his son, and Moslem families relive the moment by sacrificing a ram. After the ritual slaughter according to Koranic law, the meat is cooked and a feast is prepared for family and friends, with a generous portion going to the poor.

  August used to be a time of elaborate festivals in Cairo. As the waters of the Nile rose in the annual flood, Nilometres all along the river would be checked and rechecked, and the readings sent off to Cairo by messenger. When the water level reached a certain point, all the canals would be unblocked and the precious water would surge deep into the fields carrying valuable silt to replenish the soil. Now that the Aswan High Dam controls the Nile's flow at an even level all year round, the August festivals have only the faintest echo of their former gaiety and importance. The Cairo film festival was first organized in 1977 and proved a great success. Many countries bring their award-winning films to be shown at some of the best hotels at specific times during one week. The festival is generally held in November.