Bliss, both ethereal and heartily mundane, is celebrated in the unique spring festival of Sham Al-Nassim, an enduring relic of Ancient Egyptian civilisation and an event which, since time immemorial, has been celebrated with certain dietary items, including scallions or spring onions, termes or lupini beans, boiled eggs dyed in different colours and the ostentatious consumption of salted fish, invariably grey mullet, or fesikh. The name of this festival, celebrated the day after the Easter of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches and the lunar vernal equinox, is derived from the Coptic words “Shom Ennisim,” literally “breathing the breeze.” It marks the end of winter and ushers in the long Egyptian summer. It is not an exclusively Christian festival, and it has no particular Coptic connotations. It is also the only festival celebrated by Muslims and Christians alike, though in recent years certain fundamentalist preachers have demanded that devout Muslims not celebrate a festival that has its roots in paganism. Most Muslim Egyptians ignore these demands, however, and join Egypt's Christians in celebrating Sham Al-Nassim. “There is nothing in Islam that admonishes celebrating a traditional festival that does not contradict Islamic teachings,” Sheikh Gamal Qotb told Al-Ahram Weekly. “Muslims in Egypt have been celebrating Sham Al-Nassim for centuries,” the influential cleric, chairman of Al-Azhar's Fatwa Committee and a respected leader of the country's religious establishment, said. A former envoy of Al-Azhar to Bosnia and a former member of the People's Assembly, Qotb was also head of preaching in the Giza governorate. He is known for his moderation and is the permanent representative of Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world's most prestigious religious institution and the oldest university in the Muslim world, in inter-religious dialogue with Egypt's Christians. He is also a distinguished member of the Religious Fraternity Society. Sham Al-Nassim is a day of picnicking, as Egyptians traditionally flock to public gardens or the banks of the Nile to enjoy the fine weather and sit back and loosen up. Adults recline under the trees, usually spreading out food over brightly coloured tablecloths, while the children play around and occasionally join their parents and grandparents in relishing the prescribed dishes. Country women often break an onion early in the morning, a ritual which is supposed to induce happiness and relaxation. Indeed, the overall purpose of the festival is to unwind. According to the Roman historian Plutarch, Sham Al-Nassim was called “Shamo,” or “the renewal of life,” or “rejuvenation,” as early as the third dynasty of the Old Kingdom in around 2800 BCE. Food following the harvest is one facet of this most Egyptian of all the country's festivals, and it is one that has been celebrated for millennia. Scurrying participants, men and women and children and greybeards alike, strive to renounce the physical evidence of discord as depicted by the frosty winter during the festival and embrace the regeneration of spring. Children in particular don new clothes in snazzy and swanky colours, and young women dress to kill. The colours are meant to lifts up the spirits. They mark the line of demarcation between winter and summer, and all this happens on a single day. For some of those celebrating the festival Sham Al-Nassim may seem to be a foretaste of heaven. In fact, it is a terrestrial experience, but one in which contemporary Egyptians, like their ancient ancestors, dream of a day in heaven. Sham Al-Nassim is also associated with the ancient architect of the pyramids Imhotep, later elevated to the status of a god in ancient Egypt. His Coptic month is Baramhat, the month of harvest and spiritual regeneration, though it is of course the spiritual significance of the occasion that has made Sham Al-Nassim into an authentic national festival. No other Arabic-speaking nation celebrates Sham Al-Nassim. It does not even always fall in Baramhat, the most beautiful of months in the Egyptian calendar. But this is a day when tears are wiped away, and, taken in its allegorical sense, Sham Al-Nassim has profound import and application. The festival has no religious connotations in contemporary Egypt, it being simply the day on which the sackcloth of winter is exchanged for fine cottons, linen and even silks for those who can afford them. Unlike in the western Christian tradition, Easter is not associated with eggs, but rather with the consumption of meat after the fasting for 40 days of Lent, when meat and dairy products are prohibited. Today, the festival, like some others, can appear to be a materially-oriented event with the onus on special foods and accoutrements. However, for those who celebrate it Sham Al-Nassim also points to the spiritualisation of thought and the exuberance of spirit.
