2nd installment

Şeker Bayramı, or Eid El Fitr as we call it,its after Ramadan,we celebrate that we stopped fasting ,and celebrate the Holy month is over.
Before it ends there are some traditions we ALL do before Bayram.
Parents taking kids to buy the Eid clothes,all to his budget,but you would find all kids wearing new clothes,poor or rich
And women got there share too,and buy new clothes
İf there is any money left for the man,he can buy for himself, lol
Then the weak before Eid,all Mothers doing only one thing
CLEANİNG the house
And the can use kids too,asking them to tidy their rooms
And all the family is under the mother mercy in this
Usually the men who can afford pay and get the cleaning lady,but still washing curtains,and...,and... never ends lol
Then we buy the Eid Sweets,is some sweets got sugar on the surface,and lots of other goodies,all to his level too.
First day in Eid,family wake up early,and who doesnt wake,he receive a call on 6 am to say Şeker Bayram Kutlo Olsun
Then men,kids in their new clothes,and sometimes women go to Bayram Namaz,'Salat'
And when they come back,Family eat sweets with tea,and have an early gathering with the big family to have breakfast
Then start family visists.
Kids are the lucky ones in those days,they take money from elder people,family,relative or friends,who happen to meet.
Women get money too from husbands,if they afford it.
Then we have another family gathering at lunch,we eat grilled fish usually
Then kids go out and by toys with their money,and NEVER give it to parents
Second day some continue visisting people who we didnt visit,third day we gather youth together,have dish part,and play some games.
Ohhh,i forgot to say,Şeker Bayram is 3 days

İn Egypt as in any other country traditions are different from place to another .
But we all share almost same traditions to some extent.
And that be in some events.
Ramadan,Şeker Bayram, 'Eid El Fitr' Kurban Bayramı 'Eid El-Adha'a',Birth Of Mohamed SAV 'Mevlet' ,and Christmas on 7th January for Christians those are the religious events
New year
'Smelling the nature scents'Şam El nesim,and that is a Pharaoh event
And we have 3 National holidays,here,we take the day off from work.
They are 23 Jule,the revolution day,when we become a republic and not following any Crown
The 6th Oct,where we took our land back
The 25th April we took last bit of our land back to us.

İn Ramadan,family gather and have İftar together first day,and then each day,they are having İftar at another member of the family,or at friends,and if they dont go out,they invite people to have iftar with them.
Frieday is our weekend,so it be the most crowded day at Ramadan,so on that day the far members of the family,reunion with the family in big iftar.
The tables always full of lovely food,Dolma is our tradition food by its all kinds,along with Molokheya ' its vegetable we cook it and add soup to it and we eat with rice,its lovely'and they used to serve with duck for first days of Ramadan 'yuk' and chiken too,my Mom makes Steak too'Biftak',i prefer it.
After Ezan calling,its tradition to eat date 'hurma' even one or 2,and drink water or some Easterns drinks like 'Tamr Hendi,Kharoub,..'
And we make doa,one to each own,then start eating.
And after İftar finish,we eat Huşaf,'its some kinds of dried fruits,we put in juice along with hurma too,' then they drink tea,and eat sweets.
Eastern sweets in Ramadan,like Baklava,Basbosa,..ect
Then most men and some women go to pray 'taravih Salat'which is extra Salat 'namaz' we pray it only in Ramadan ,then they gather again,and chat,or watch TV, read Kur'an
İn Ramadan,people race to finish reading the whole Kur'an in the Holy month.
TV in Ramadan be full of series made only to watch in Ramadan as a celebration,not a religious series,but sometimes there is one,usually they make more than 10 to 15 new series,played by the most famouse movie stars,and they race to put it in Ramadan schadual so they be more famouse.

Then some people who like to stay late,gather again at 3 am to have Sahour together,'Which we eat at dawn before fasting' we do it in my family.
Others sleep a little then wake up before dawn to eat,or some eat early and sleep.
You would see all the city full of light,Mosques are decorated with lights whole month,so much light as same as you do in Christmas,but we keep them right after Ramadan and Şeker Bayramı finish.
Ohh some other thing,in ramadan we have something called 'Ma'idet Al Rahman' meaning the Tables of AL RAHMAN ,AL RAHMAN is a name of ALLAH .
Those tables are made by people who are putting them in the streets to make large table,for poor people,or people who are on travelling and they cant catch Ezan time at home
For anyone who want to break the fast,and those tables full of good food,some people make in their homes,some they buy,who want to buy the fruits can do,and at the end,the tables full of goodies
No one would ever be hungry in Ramadan.
We all love Ramadan,its full of Hayır''blessings' even we fast for whole day,and sometimes get thirsty,but we always wait for it from a year to another,happy when it comes,sad when it finished.

Ohh,and i forgot to tell you about Ramadan lamp,we call it Fanous Ramadan
İts coming away back from the history,now it got so many shapes.
Kids in the past use to have small Ramadan lamps,and light it with a candle,and they gather in the streets together,lighting up their lamps,and singing some songs for Ramadan
Now there is a lamp inside it instead of candles,and made of Plastic,and kids play with it inside houses and close the light and sing for Ramadan still

Have a rest and i will tell you about Bayram traditions

Fanous Ramadan