Gamal Nkrumah assesses the coincidence of two Christmases, New Year's Eve and Eid Al-Adha, all occurring within the space of barely three weeks Setting the mood is all about feasting and dressing up. The festive season is a time to wallow in a warm pool of self- indulgence, or at least when everything seems to be going swimmingly. It is the time of the year when a family man digs deep into his pockets to buy all sorts of surprises for his children. Small wonder that, when it comes to enterprise, festive season shoppers talk a good game. This year, the entire nation will be enveloped in festivities of first, the Western Christmas, then New Year's Eve and Eid Al-Adha, and last but not least, Coptic Christmas. The three-week period promises to be one of a decidedly growing retail boom and a rise in sales on the back of price hikes. There is a wide range of shoppers from designer-conscious bargain hunters to consumers who have a social conscience. All, however, descend on the teeming streets of Cairo in a mad present-buying binge. Therefore, whether you are a Muslim or a Copt, get your budget in order and focus on your top priorities. You've got far more important uses for your energy than dashing around from shop to shop comparing prices. People rush to buy the big brand high street goods. Most will have to make a little go a long way. If you see it and you want it, resisting the urge to pull out your plastic, your chequebook or anything else you can use for collateral will be absolutely impossible. Got will power? You'd better find some. The message of magnanimity, however, will be hammered home during Eid Al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, when the spirit of generosity prevails. Remembering the poor and less fortunate and distributing alms is the essence of the feast. In the Christian tradition, too, Christmas celebrates benevolence. Around this time of the year, it will be far too easy to talk you into pulling out your chequebook or credit cards now -- especially, if it is to donate to one of your favourite causes. Be sure the person who's asking is genuine, though. It's a hungry world and supplies are limited. The Feast of the Sacrifice is undoubtedly the most important festival in the Muslim calendar. It commemorates a very special and sacred historical event for adherents of monotheistic religions. Abraham (Ibrahim) demonstrated his unconditional willingness to obey God. He was prepared to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Ismail), rather than Isaac as narrated in the Old Testament, when Allah, God, commanded him to do so. Ishmael is widely considered to be the forefather of Arabs. Just when Ibrahim was about to slit the throat of his firstborn, Allah instructed him to slaughter, or sacrifice, a ram instead. For Muslims, Eid Al-Adha concludes pilgrimage to Mecca, a pillar of Islam, obligatory for those who can afford the trip to the Hijaz. However, for those who cannot make it, oxen, buffaloes or rams are sacrificed at home. The Muslim family that can afford to slaughter a beast, keeps or consumes a third of the meat, makes a gift of one third to family and relations and donates the rest to the poor and needy. Unfortunately, the Feast of the Sacrifice has also emerged at the time when people are prone to show off, and are so busy living up to other people's expectations. Traditionally, people purchase new clothes for their children at Eid Al-Fitr, when Muslims break the fast of Ramadan. These days, Eid Al-Adha has become yet another excuse to buy a whole new wardrobe. Coptic Christians, too, celebrate their Christmas with children receiving new clothes, toys and other gifts. Moreover, Coptic Christmas, like Eid Al-Adha, tends to be associated with meat. The Coptic Christmas falls on 7 January, or 29 Kiahk -- the fourth month of the Coptic calendar, which signals the onset of winter. Kiahk is one of the coldest months of the year in Egypt. In Kiahk, the days are also shorter, and darkness falls early. Sabahak masak, tehaddar fitarak, tehaddar ashak, (your morning soon becomes your evening, prepare your breakfast and then immediately prepare your supper). The month of Kiahk is also closely associated with spiritual rejuvenation. The origin of the word Kiahk is Kahaka, which means "the gathering of spirits, or the month when spirits congregate" in the ancient Egyptian tongue. Ka is spirit both in Coptic, and in the language of the ancient Egyptians. Ironically, the spiritual month of fasting ends in a carousal of carnivorous feasting. The traditional dish of breaking the fast is fatta -- meat, rice and bread soaked in a garlic-based sauce and served piping hot to ward off the cold. The thoroughly filling fatta is hungrily consumed after a bitterly cold month in which flesh is forbidden -- meat, eggs and dairy products are prohibited in the fast that lasts roughly from 25 November to 6 January. Fatta is eaten after Coptic Christmas mid-night mass and on the morning of 7 January. A single glass of red wine washes the rich dish down. Gulping down gallons of alcoholic drinks is frowned upon by frugal and God-fearing Copts. While the Coptic Christmas is celebrated with the lighting of candles, crackers and Santa Claus of Western Christmas have only recently come in vogue. The various Muslim communities in Egypt celebrate Eid Al-Adha with their own traditional feasting -- the Africans, South Asians and Southeast Asians among others. At Madinat Al-Bo'outh, the Educational Mission City, of Al-Azhar University, on the first day of Eid Al-Adha, one catches a whiff of delicacies from around the Muslim world. Mutton Biryani, being meat and saffron rice, is a firm favourite Eid Al-Adha dish as far as Muslims in South Asia are concerned. Another tasty alternative is mutton Korma, a stew of braised lamb, coconut, ginger, cinnamon and assorted chilis -- a side dish is kofta, or Indian spicy meatballs. The Indonesians and Malaysians feast on satay -- skewered meat kebab. Among the Muslims of West Africa, Jollof rice is a favourite Eid Al-Adha dish in Senegal, Gambia and Guinea. Seasoned rice is cooked with meat, preferably mutton, and various seasonal vegetables. Most of the overseas students wear their colourful traditional garb on Eid Al-Adha. The last two weeks of 2006 promise to be one of the biggest shopping fortnights of the year in the country's recent history. In upmarket Cairene neighbourhoods such as Zamalek and Maadi, Christmas trees laden with twinkling lights abound. With the Avian Flu scare, roast turkey might not be an option this Christmas. I was never one for the big bird itself, but a scrumptious sausage, chestnut and sage stuffing is always a wonderful treat. Restaurants and hotels offer a wide range of Christmas and New Year's Eve dinners. One can even purchase a Christmas plum pudding in Cairo, in one of the bakeries of the plush five-star hotels. The plum is something of a misnomer, of course, for the pudding is packed with an assortment of other dried fruit like raisins and orange rind. England's traditional Christmas cake is a mouthwatering rich bake fruit cake with marzipan, icing and sugar frosting. Not to be outdone, the French are proud of their own traditional Christmas cake -- the Buche de Nol, a scrumptious sponge cake. The Italians, too, have their almond-stuffed Panettone, the Milanese Christmas specialty with raisins and candied fruit. One would be hard-pressed, though, to sample the other delicious Italian Christmas cookies such as the Neapolitan S-shaped, sesame-drenched Susamielli, or, the Struffoli, fried dough balls dipped in honey and sprinkled with diavolilli, and last but not least, the Caggionetti fried cookies of Naples. These foreign luxuries might be out of reach to the average Egyptian, who will make do with kahk -- the traditional Egyptian cookie served on all festive occasions and baked with a wide range of flavours and stuffings, the most popular being dates and Turkish delight. Ghourayeba is a plainer but tastier and butter-saturated alternative. You must demand your share of the cake, whichever way you slice the festive season's bake. Caught up in the frenzy of the festive season shopping, the commercials on television, jingling bells, the alluring display of merchandise, one is bound to spend one's exiguous savings on festive season shopping. Be careful, however, that you do not overspend or indulge too much in shopping sprees. But on second thought, why not? Live your life to the fullest, and you might make an excellent buy in the weeks ahead.
