Egypt - Part 5 - Standards and Holidays

A Happy Religious Holiday Islam is known for being a strict religion with a very long list of solemn rituals. This side of Islam is visible everywhere in Egypt. Several times a day I would hear the words "Come to Prayer! Allah is Great" chanted in Arabic over the megaphone. More than once we had to cross the road to avoid a mosque whose attendance was so high people started lining up to pray along the side walk. But there was a much less formal and even happy side of Islam that I got to see in Egypt, Ramadan, which operated similarly to Christmas in many ways. There were traditional Ramadan decorations all over the city. Streamers were zig zaged between high rise apartment buildings. Christmas lights (though I doubt they were called that) are also strung along windows. Fanoos (Arabic for lantern) were hung outside of shops and homes that were beautifully decorated. If you look, the Fanoo in this picture has certain familiar arches on it. There was an atmosphere of happiness and goodwill. My favorite example of this took place while I was purchasing a bookmark for Stephanie with her name written in Hieroglyphics. I joked with the woman writing her name saying, "How do I know this says Stephanie. I mean, you could write "Your wife is ugly" and tell me that it said Stephanie and I wouldn’t have any way to know the difference." Her response was simply, "Oh, but you must trust us. We would not do that to you during Ramadan, so you can trust us." Of course it’s still true, that this lovely bookmark may say "Your wife is ugly." Also, many people told me that during Ramadan, people get a lot more time off to spend at home, and not as much gets done. This also has to do with the fact that they don’t eat from sun up to sun down, so they are sleepy during the day. The soap operas on TV tend to be more engaging during Ramadan because they know people will be relaxing at home. It was just neat to see that a religion so foreign to me, yet it developed a religious holiday time similar to Christmas. Note: Yes I know that the reasons we celebrate Christmas are different then the reasons Muslims celebrate Ramadan. But you cannot deny that a large bulk of what we associate with Christmas is cultural tradition, and not religion. Engineering Standards In the third world, there are often no building standards. Often, all that is needed is approval from a city official, which of course can easily breed corruption. This was not the case in Egypt at all. Even though the building codes were probably not as strict or extensive as exist in the USA, they still exist. That’s important. Fanoo shaped decoration Streamers between Apartments An Egyptian Market Some old buildings