Cairo was all wrapped in decorations, lights and colours in the past few days to welcome the festive holidays of Christmas and the New Year.
Bells, Santa Claus effigies and Christmas trees were ubiquities sights in the Egyptian capital as traders and ordinary people tried to make the most of the festive seasons.
Celebrated by Egypt’s Christians and Muslims alike, Christmas and the New Year are usually the largest festivals in this country, especially in Cairo where millions of people revere these occasions.
Shop assistant Ahmed Abdullah is one of those who were waiting on tenterhooks for these occasions to dawn.
“Celebrating the New Year has nothing to do with one’s faith,” Abdullah, 29, told the Egyptian Mail.
“Christmas is an occasion for all humanity,” he added.
Falling at the centre of the Egyptian capital, Abdullah’s shop paraded a huge number of Christmas decorations and gifts, never failing to grab the attention of passers-by and those preparing for the Christmastide.
He said the season is one of the busiest throughout the year, with most of those entering his shop wanting to buy something special for the occasion, either for themselves or for their loved ones.
Abdullah’s shop was not the only commercial outlet in downtown Cairo that tried to take full advantage of the festive occasions.
Bookstores, clothing stores and malls all over the capital put out their most elaborate Christmas displays – complete with reindeer, Christmas bells and Santa Clauses.
Restaurants, bakeries and cafés served their holiday treats which included cinnamon-flavoured drinks and cakes adorned with Christmas decorations made from icing.
Christmas used to be mostly celebrated by Egypt’s upper classes, as they had greater exposure to western culture.
However, over the last decade or so, more ordinary Egyptians have started joining in the celebrations, Abdullah said.
He attributed this to an increase in Christmas celebrations depicted in locally-produced films, television shows, posts and advertising campaigns on social media.
For Cairo’s street vendors, Christmas provided an opportunity to make some extra money from selling decorations.
Amid Cairo’s traffic jams, worsened by the biting cold of the winter, dozens of street vendors could be seen making their way through the lines of vehicles, trying to tempt drivers with Santa hats with flashing lights, reindeer antlers, and other festive favourites.
Street vendor, Mahmud Mohamed, said he and fellow vendors started stocking up on Christmas items towards the end of November to sell them in December.
“Christmas is just a season like any other season,” Mohamed told this newspaper. “It is about celebration and business too.”
In Korba, a district of north-eastern Cairo’s Heliopolis neighbourhood, passers-by were keen to stop to take selfies beside a large Christmas tree placed outside one of the shops of the area.
Korba boasted one of the Egyptian capital’s most impressive displays of Christmas decorations.
Other neighbourhoods, including Sheikh Zayed, which is part of 6 October in the south-western part of the Egyptian capital, and New Cairo, in south-eastern Cairo, competed with equally vibrant, shinning and colourful displays.
