9 - 15 May 2002
Issue No.585
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 9 - 15 May 2002 Issue No.585 |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
EASTER BREEZE: Monday was a national holiday celebrating the festival of Sham Al-Nessim -- literally "smelling the breeze". The holiday originates in ancient Pharaonic times and marks the beginning of spring. True to Egyptian tradition, food is central to the day's events; Sham Al-Nessim fare must-haves at the open-air picnics include spring onions, coloured eggs and an assortment of smoked and dried fish, most prominently the uniquely Egyptian feseekh. Popular destinations are the Cairo Zoo, which received 600,000 visitors, and the public parks, which catered for another half-million. Topping the chart of destinations, however, were the Qanater Gardens, accessible by Nile ferry, where an estimated one million day-trippers headed.
In Alexandria (right), where three million residents and visitors hit the Mediterranean city's beaches and parks, young people have evolved a rather dangerous tradition to celebrate the coming of spring. They leap down the historic Bir Mass'oud, or Mass'oud's well.
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