The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

This year, Sham El-Neseem will fall on April 25, just a few days from now! And we’ve noticed people have some misconceptions regarding the holiday or are confused about whether it’s Christian or not and its relationship to Easter.

We’d already written an article explaining Coptic Orthodox Easter (the flavour celebrated in Egypt!), but we’ll briefly repeat the difference between Easter and Sham El-Naseem here: Easter is a religious, Christian holiday commemorating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ,  Sham El-Neseem is a secular, national holiday that celebrates the beginning of spring, which goes back to Pharaonic Egypt.

For an agriculture-based country like Egypt, it’s easy to imagine that the important festivals would fall around significant farming times of the year. This is exactly what happens with Sham El-Nassem. The name itself is believed to have originated from what Ancient Egyptians knew as Šmw, which is The Season of the Harvest, and literally translates to ‘Low Water’. It also refers to the state of the Nile before the beginning of its annual flood.

The Pharaonic era witnessed the first celebration of the festival, and ever since, Egyptians have held onto their customs throughout the Ptolemaic kingdom in Egypt and the Roman times, to the Christianisation and Islamification of Egypt. 

Sham El-Naseem is unrelated to Easter in origin, history, and meaning. But, following the Christianisation of Egypt, they have become associated together, as both are spring festivals. The Coptic Church of Egypt also fixed the date for the festival on its calendar: Exactly the day following Easter Sunday. It’s largely assumed when the date was first set, it had more to do with associating the festival with the Khamsin winds rather than Easter, and the windstorms just happened to come at the same time as Easter.

Either way, even after the Arab Conquest of Egypt, Sham El-Neseem as a festival remained on the Christian calendar as it was solar and fixed, while the Islamic Calendar was lunar and unfixed. 

Egyptians, Muslims, Christians and otherwise, all celebrate Sham El-Neseem and have done so for millennia. Celebrations include family gatherings, usually picnicking at parks, public gardens, or other open green spaces. Children colour boiled eggs (and leave them for their parents to eat!) The star of the night, however, is always the fesikh and renga, surrounded by lettuce, scallions, and slices of lemon. French fries are usually served as a side dish too!