The Diva of the Arabic song!!

Today Ferbruay 3rd is the memory of the day that Egypt, the Arab world and the Whole World lost a very important and famous person… “Umm Kalthum“.

Her birth date is not certain… she was probably born in 1898 or in 1904 and she passed away in 1975. It is been now 39 years since she passed away but she is still very famous in Egypt and in the Arab World! Some says that she is the 4th pyramid of EGYPT! She is known as Kawkab al-Sharq “Star of the East“. Her life career is very long and rich, she mainly sang love songs. The beautiful voice of Umm Kalthum was praised by lots of famous persons like John Wobble, Bob Dylan, Charles de Gaulle…

While visiting Egypt you may visit “Zamalek“, it is one of the most beautiful districts in Cairo. In Zamalek, there is a famous Coffee shop “Coffee Bean” where Egyptian Youth go to enjoy a cup of coffee and enjoy the sun. While seating there, you will see a statue of a lady… that’s Um Kalthoum! Actually the whole building was the location of her Villa. Unfortunately, after her death, the villa was sold and the guy who bought it transformed into a huge building and a hotel!! It is a very sad story to the house of a VERY IMPORTANT person like the Diva but the world ain’t always Sun Shine!! Anyway, now there is another museum that collects her private collection, it is in Manial (Cairo).

Coffee Bean Zamalek

Statue in Zamalek

I’m sharing with you photos for her beautiful house in Zamalek that unfortunately doesn’t exist no more… P.S: The villa was designed by a famous architect “Aly Labib”.

Before… After!!

How Egyptians celebrate New Year & Christmas?

Christmas and New Year are very special occasions in Egypt. Actually the 2 of them are more or less the same for Egyptians. When Egyptians mention the word “Christmas” usually they would mean the New Year’s Eve or New Year Celebrations. Christmas ( or New Year’s eve) is celebrated by most of the Egyptians (Muslims and Christians). The celebration way may differ from one person to another (We will come to that later 😉 ).

But what about Christmas (the celebrations of the birth of Jesus). Mainly Christmas in Egypt is not celebrated on the 25th of December… it is celebrated the 7th of January 🙂  Most Egyptians Christians are Orthodox that’s why they celebrate the Christmas on the 7th of January but for Catholics or Protestants churches celebrate it on the 25th of December.  Normally the celebration is attending the mess in the church (24 Dec night or 6 Jan night), then the next day is usually a family day where family gathers for a family lunch or spend the day in a social club, restaurants… youth of the family can hang out with their other family youth members in a cafe or go to the cinema and later meet the Big Family for lunch.

New Year’s Eve Celebrations

When it comes to New Year’s eve celebrations there are endless way to celebrate it that varies from a very expensive outing to simply staying at home and watch TV.

5 stars Hotels usually host Gala Dinners on New Year’s eve. Usually it is a very luxurious dinner, with super stars singers singing in that event. Tickets are usually sold out before.

Pubs and clubs have also arrangements for the new year with special DJs playing in that night.

Restaurants and coffee shops also decorate their places with Christmas trees and Christmas decorations. They can have a special set menu for that day or they will apply a certain minimum charge for orders.

Also people from popular class, make their own parties. You can see beautiful small Felouka (Nile boat) decorated with colored light floats in the Nile with a dancing rhythm and with loud popular songs playing and people dancing in the boat and cheering.

Because it is usually very crowded or very expensive on that day, so you can find that lots of Egyptians prefer to stay at home. They can make a small party at home for friends or just seat and watch TV or movie and enjoy the day with the small family. It can be a movie night (Lucky enough, they may find “Home Alone” in TV, if not than any other Good movie), family all together and enjoying snacks, cupcakes… For lots of Egyptians, the movie “Home Alone” is mainly related to New Year’s Eve as years before it was mostly the only movie broadcasted in the National TV on that day.