After a busy day of labor, driving kids from his neighbourhood in Menshyiat Nasser — also called the Rubbish Metropolis — to varsities in downtown Cairo, Malak Aziz finds peace on the Cave Church of Saint Samaan.
Malak rapidly warns us that these are the final weeks of silence and calm inside this facility. When the month of December involves its finish, he says, the group round Menshyiat Nasser, in addition to all Coptic Christians in Egypt, begins to get able to have fun one of the vital vital celebrations of the yr: the beginning of Jesus, or, Christmas.
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Malak Aziz in his mini-ban, with which he drives kids to high school in addition to vacationers and households in the course of the Christmas holidays (Photograph: Bianca Carrera)
However for Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Christians, which make up round 90 p.c of the overall Christian inhabitants, Christmas day will come on 6 and seven January as an alternative of on 25 December.
It is going to be in the course of the evening mass of January 6 that Saint Samaan’s Cave Church might be stuffed with lots of of worshippers. On the next morning, 1000’s of Egyptians will get up to presents and household visits.
Decorations, meals and numerous household visits
María, who’s a pupil at Cairo College, says this can be a big day to attach along with her family members, as is the case for these celebrating in a lot of Europe, America, and past.
”We have fun it by first getting ready our residence with decorations and the tree, enjoying music and hymns collectively, going with my buddies to church…,” she advised EUobserver.
And similar to all over the place else, meals is an important a part of the festivity. ”We make Egyptian regag bread, stuffed greens or ’mahshi’, totally different conventional meat recipes, boiled fried eggs or ’beid mezaghlil’, rice with nuts… Everybody within the household participates within the making in order that nobody will get uninterested in doing it on their lonesome,” she recollects.
From the primary of the holy days, María might be visiting totally different members of the family, having to go from one home to a different. As a driver, Malak might be aiding within the transportation efforts wanted to get individuals like María to see their relations residing in and out of doors Cairo.
”I nonetheless have no idea if I will accompany my spouse and kids throughout an important days on the 6 and seven, as there’s normally numerous work driving the group to their households’ homes,” she stated.
The 39-year-old lives in one in all Cairo’s largest Christian communities, which can also be the place the place most trash collectors reside and recycle as much as 85 p.c of the capital’s waste.
However regardless of such inconvenience, Malak is blissful together with his job as a driver, by which he typically will get the prospect to drive vacationers and worshippers from all corners of the world to go to the Christian websites that Egypt presents.
Egypt and Christianity, an uncontested relationship
”The Church the place we’re standing — Saint Samaan’s Cave Church — hosts many guests yearly. The final time I noticed a gaggle of holiday makers coming it was one in all 300 individuals,” Malak advised EUobserver.
For him, it appears inconceivable that some individuals within the West ignore the significance of Christianity in his nation, typically solely recognized for its Muslim nature. ”Egypt is among the international locations with essentially the most Christian sights, outdated and trendy.”
As Malak recounts, Egypt holds an vital significance for Christians all over the world. The websites that may be discovered are largely associated to the wanderings of the Holy Household by the nation, the place they’re stated to have taken refuge for over three years after fleeing King Herod’s rule in Palestine.
Different websites are associated to miracles, just like the church that Malak confirmed us. Though it was inaugurated in 1993, Saint Samaan’s Cave Church lies on the foot of a mountain whose prophecies return centuries.
The Mokattam mountain, which implies minimize off or damaged off, is alleged to have been positioned the place we see it right now after the Fatimid ruler over Egypt requested Christians to show that their religion was true by shifting a mountain, as in any other case they’d be expelled or killed.
”After fasting for 3 days and repeating prayers 4 hundred instances, God moved this mountain up and down from its unique location till it reached right here,” Malak stated.
For that motive, he feels this church is among the finest locations for his group to have fun Christmas.
It’s a house stuffed with outdated and trendy tales. An area from the place kids are heard practising their chants are carols, quickly to sweeten the environment. An area reminding us that Christmas within the Center East, the place it originated, is as vital as ever.