Eid

13.10.2007

I was supposed to be in Jerusalem but sadly it didn't work out. The Egyptians decided I have been here on one too many tourist visas and that its time I got residency. Which takes 5 days to process and seeing as how we planned the trip on Tuesday, I went to renew my visa on Thursday and it was the Eid weekend...there was no way this trip was going to happen.

So Eid in Cairo it is. Zamalek at the moment feels like a ghost town. My street is usually brimming with people: all the bowebs (doormen) huddled in a group whiling away the hours, the worshippers going in and out of the mosque next door, the shop keeper boys eyeing every lady walking past (me). Today the street is empty and dimly lit. All of Cairo has got up and left to celebrate Eid with their families, especially the working class who mostly come from outside the capital. It almost has me suspecting that my street, despite being in Zamalek, is composed purely of bowebs. Even my building's boweb is off in Aswan, leaving my bloody lift broken and with noone to fix it.

In spirit of Eid in Egypt, my friends and I stayed up all night last night, and headed for Old Cairo at 4 am. People here literally stay up all night on Eid, shopping, eating, hanging out on streets doing nothing in particular. One peculiar practice is that of numerous groups of young men loitering about on streets or driving about ferociously to nowhere in particular — we can't figure out what it is about Eid that brings them outdoors like this, displaying more-than-usual aggressiveness. I understand the concept of jobless men loitering about and I recognise its a day off — but what do they do the rest of the year? Weekends?

Talaat Harb was blindingly white, with masses of people everywhere — one wouldn't imagine it being 3.45am. Got to Islamic Cairo and had feteer at the amazing Khan El Khalili Egyptian Pancakes joint (try the banana and cream, Tom describes it as 'transcendental'). We did a mini mosque hop from Hussein to Al-Azhar to Sultan Hassan. We were told from before that Hussein is the scene of some-quarter-of-a-million worshippers on Eid morning, but at about 5.30am, it seemed like these worshippers had decided to give Eid prayers a miss this year. Walked across the street to find them in Al-Azhar instead — droves of people continuously swept into the big courtyard of this mosque for at least 45 minutes. People were still making their way in as prayers started, and I ended up not even having enough space to prostrate fully. I just about managed to touch the floor with the tips of my fingers.

If you've been to Islamic Cairo before, you'll know what a human jam it is. This morning though, it was peacefully beautiful. A sharp contrast to the Old Cairo walk I did just a week before, right before iftar broke (which I will get around to blogging about later). The market leading up to the tentmakers bazaar was empty, not a single stall in sight. Everything was bathed in the haze of dawn. Buildings, mosques and streets I've seen a hundred times before looked incredibly poetic.

We ended my first Eid morning in Cairo with some tea near Sultan Hassan, listening to the ranting of a crazy old lady next to us. Eid Mubarak dear world.