Easter is a very special occasion for Christians and non-Christians alike in Egypt. For Christians, it celebrates Jesus Christ’s resurrection (عيد القيامة). It comes at the end of a 50-days fasting for Eastern Christians. Celebrating Easter typically lasts for a whole week, i.e. the last week of fasting, including celebrating Good Friday (الجمعة الحزينة), Ash Wednesday (أربعاءالرماد), Thursday (خميسالعهد), Easter Saturday (سبت النور) and Easter Sunday (عيدالقيامة).
A good greeting expression for Christians on Easter would be (عيد سعيدوقيامة مجيدة)
Easter is also an ancient Egyptian occasion that is celebrated by almost all Egyptians regardless of religion or belief. In Arabic it is called (شم النسيم), and it celebrates the beginning of spring. It is celebrated on the Monday following Easter Sunday. It is a national holiday in Egypt. People celebrate (شم النسيم) outdoors by going out to parks and gardens. In the morning, children color eggs and eat them for breakfast. For lunch, people usually have salted fish (السمك المملح / الفسيخ) and leafy green vegetables. At night, there are special concerts, and they are usually broadcast live on radio and television.
A general Egyptian greeting for special occassions like Easter is:
كل سنة وانت طيب!
Comments:
nelli:
Hi, I’m a first year student from Hungary, studying Classical and Modern Standard Arabic. I run a blog in Hungarian about things I learn, and I would ask you, if I could translate your Grammar compendiums to Hungarian, and with a link to this blog to post them on my page. We have no Arab-Hungarian grammar books, so it would be very helpful.
nelli
Robert Horvath:
This is a wonderful blog, but would it be possible to put in vowel markings for all sentences? This would make it much easier to copy materials to BYKI and record the sounds of phrases. Alternatively a Latin transliteration would suffice. Otherwise the learning experience of a large number of potential users is vastly diminished.
ali:
كل عام وانتم بخير جميعا بمناسبه شم النسيم
Aziza:
I will try to use vowel markings more often in the future postings. Salam, Aziza
Jeremy Bicha:
Robert, it depends on the level. For those a bit more advanced, the vowel marking actually make Arabic harder to read.
nelli:
than, it’s a yes?
usman:
informative!
Melissa:
this was cute!