April in Egypt was an eventful and pleasant month. The weather has, for the most part, been pretty pleasant. Fun outings with friends have kept me busy and various national and religious holidays have given me quite the needed break from work. Let’s start at the beginning.

When I heard that Cinderella & Swan Lake, the ballet, was coming to Cairo I was absolutely ecstatic. Having always been a fan of the arts I immediately made my way to the Cairo Opera House to grab tickets well before the scheduled performance. This is when I learned the performance was on ice! Though very excited about the upcoming show, I was somewhat skeptical as to how Egypt was going to pull this one off… a ballet, on ice, inside the Cairo Opera House in the Main Hall? With a layer of ice spread across the indoor stage, Egypt did well. It was one of the most magnificent things I have ever seen. One point for Egypt.

After the performance my friend and I headed to the downtown campus of American University in Cairo (AUC) for their annual Land Day celebration. Land Day is organized by AUC’s Al Quds (literally meaning Jerusalem) club. The aim of the Al Quds club is to raise awareness to the Palestinian situation and to raise money for relief efforts.

On March 30, 1976, Israeli soldiers brutally killed six Palestinians. The government had just announced a plan that would confiscate land in Arab areas – thousands and thousands of acres from the Palestinians. In response, strikes, marches, and peaceful protests were organized by Arab citizens. The Israeli soldiers responded by killing six Palestinians, injuring 96 others, and jailing hundreds. Since then Land Day has been celebrated worldwide by Palestinians and Palestinian supporters as a day commemorating the daily struggle of Palestinians against the occupation and their search for an identity. At AUC the Palestinian ambassador to Egypt spoke, there was traditional Palestinian music played and songs sang, an informative documentary was shown, and there was a powerful performance in regards to how many Palestinians are either trapped or left without a home, or identity. The night ended with Dabka, traditional Palestinian dance. My friend is a member of the Dabka team and her fiancé is the leader of the team. I have seen them perform many times and each time is more exciting than the one before. Afterwards we headed to the fountain area of the campus where we had some traditional Palestinian food. Yum, yum! April was off to a good start.

Later in the month Egyptians celebrated several holidays – the first being Coptic Easter, which isn’t much different from the Easter celebrated in the States but since the Christians here are mostly Orthodox (Coptic Christians), Easter was celebrated one week after Easter in the States. Following Coptic Easter was Sham El Nessim. Sham El Nessim is a Pharoanic holiday marking the first day of Spring… which also meant that shortly after we set our clocks an hour ahead. According to some reading I did online, Sham El Nessim falls on the Monday after Coptic Easter. In Ancient Egypt, Sham El Nessim was significant to agriculture and then later on, fertility rites. Traditionally, Ancient Egyptians would make offers of salty fish, green onions, and lettuce to their deities. Today, the salty fish, known as fiseekh, is still eaten by many. Though it is tradition to eat this type of fish for the holiday, marking the start of Spring, I stay far, far, FAR away from it. Fish in general is not so appealing to me, and this type of salty fish looks even worse, plus I hear it has its own “special” smell. Sounds scary to me. Aside from eating salty fish, on Sham El Nessim Egyptians enjoy a break from work. Some travel to nearby beaches (Ain Soknah and Alexandria), while others crowd at malls, clubs, restaurants, and other areas to celebrate the holiday and enjoy the nice weather in Egypt, (perhaps because summer is just around the corner and the nice weather won’t last so long?).

Following Sham El Nessim came Sinai Liberation Day. In the 1967 Six Day War, Israel took the Sinai region from Egypt. Sinai Liberation Day celebrates Egypt regaining the Sinai region. In 1982 President Anwar El Sadat signed a peace agreement that effectively returned the Sinai region, in its whole, to Egypt… thus Sinai Liberation Day.

So April was a good month, filled with holidays both religious and historical. Though most of the holidays had no real significance to me, it was a blast enjoying two paid vacations from work, both of which contributed to two day weekends, which I hardly see anymore. Next comes May… and as the temperatures begin to rise to an unbearable degree and paid vacations are far and few between, it might just be a rough summer. Hanshoof. We’ll see.

Karema A. Eldahan is a Middlesboro native living in Egypt. She shares this experience through her monthly column. Contact her via e-mail at editor@middlesborodailynews.com.