Spring Festival also Known as Sham El Nessim
In ancient Egyptian Arabic language the spring festival is known by its official name “Sham-El-Nessim”. This festival is an Egyptian national holiday which marks the beginning of spring. The name of this festival is driven from the word SHEMU which means a day of creation in Egyptian Arabic language.
This festival is altogether celebrated by both Christians and Muslims being falling on the Monday after Christian’s Orthodox Easter every year. The festival is being celebrated from the time of Pharaohs who were present around 4500 years ago, they used to call this festival “Shamo” which means renewal of life in regard to starting of the new season for the agricultural growth.
Although, it was earlier believed that celebration starts at the beginning of the spring equinox and then the date of the festival would be calculated by measuring the direction of the sunlight over the Giza pyramids. So,also there was no fixed day for this festival.
In this festival the traditional food eaten are the Eggs. As, eggs are an important symbol for Egyptians where eggs are been boiled, colored and decorated in various colors. After that they need to be hanged on the trees or roofs into the decorated baskets. Not only eggs but salted fishes is also an important dish which is consumed on this day, which is called as Fiseekh in Egyptian language.
This is important to eat fiseekh here because in ancient times, Egyptians used to store and salt the extra fishes they had who used to live near river Nile. During the 1st century AD, people here used to offer lettuce, green onions, Lupini beans and onions also to their divine beings.
On this day, people goes out for picnic to public parks , zoos , near river Nile and to other open spaces with their family and friends to enjoy this festival . Also, the festival is now being counted in the list of national holidays of the country, as it is celebrated by both Christians and Muslims. This year (2016), the festival will fall on 2nd of May in Egypt and would be celebrated with the same zeal and enthusiasm.
Happy Spring Festival from Vipin Hair Extensions
