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| COLOURED EGGS |
Monday 9 April 2018 marks Sham
El-Nessim, a festival that takes place in the same breath as Orthodox Easter,
falling on the day after Easter Sunday each year.
The rituals and beliefs associated
with today’s Sham El-Nessim celebrations link it directly to Ancient Egyptian
feasts linking. Much like Easter, the festival deals with notions of creation
and renewal.
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| ENJOYING THE DAY IN THE PARK |
All Egyptians regardless of their
religion, beliefs, and social status have celebrated sham El-Nessim since 2700
BC. The name Sham El-Nessim (Inhaling the breeze) is derived from the Coptic
language, which is, in turn, derived from the Ancient Egyptian language. It was
originally pronounced Tshom Ni Sime, with tshom meaning “gardens” and ni sime
meaning “meadows”.
Like most Ancient Egyptian feasts,
Sham El-Nessim was linked to astronomy and nature. It marked the beginning of
the spring festival, with day and night equal in length and the sun in the
Aries zodiac, marking the beginning of creation. The Ancient Egyptians, who
called it The Feast of Shmo (The revival of life), determined the exact date
each year by measuring the sun's alignment with the Great Pyramid in Giza.
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| FOOD OFFERING |
These days, many Egyptians rise at
the crack of dawn and head out to parks and gardens for a family picnic. There
they enjoy the spring breeze with a traditional meal of fish, onions and eggs.
Fish figured large in Ancient
Egyptian beliefs, and this translated into a range of dishes. Salted mullet
fish (known as fesikh), was offered to the gods in Esna in Upper Egypt. Indeed,
Esna’s ancient name was Lathpolis, reflecting the original name of the fish
before salting.
Another traditional Sham El-Nessim
practice, the colouring of eggs, reflects the Ancient Egyptian view of eggs as
symbolic of new life. The symbolism featured in the pharaonic Book of the Dead
and in Akhenaten's chant, “God is one, he created life from the inanimate and
he created chicks from eggs.”
Ancient Egyptians would boil eggs
on the eve of Sham El-Nasim, decorating and colouring them in various patterns.
They would then write their wishes on these eggs, tuck them in baskets made of
palm fronds and hang them on trees or the roofs of their houses, hoping that
the gods would answer their wishes by dawn.
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| FESTIVE MOOD |
The habit of eating onions on the
feast day is equally ancient. According to Egyptian legend, one of the pharaoh’s
daughters had an incurable disease. Doctors were clueless until a high priest
gave her onion juice by way of medicine. Her condition improved and her father,
thrilled at her recovery, declared the day an official celebration in honour of
onions.
From that day forward, people
would roam the city of Menf each year, offering onions to their dead.
Ancient Egyptians also considered
certain flowers and plants to be holy, with the lotus flower used to symbolize
of the Egyptian nation.
Families in Ancient Egypt would
combine these various elements at Sham El-Nessim. They would gather the day
before to colour boiled eggs, preparing meals of fesikh (Pickled Mullet fish)
and onions. Some would hang onions in their doorways to ward off evil spirits
or place them under their grandchildren’s pillows that night to summon the god
Sukar. Before dawn, people would head to meadows and gardens or the banks of
the Nile to watch the sunrise, bringing with them food and flowers.
They would then spend the day in the open air, welcoming the spring with joyful singing.
They would then spend the day in the open air, welcoming the spring with joyful singing.
Feseekh فسيخ
Feseekh in English can be
transliterated into various forms, such as fisikh, fesikh, ...etc.
It is a semi-putrid form of salted
and dried Grey Mullet species (Mugil spp.), a saltwater fish that lives in both
the Mediterranean and the Red Seas.
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| FESHIKH & ONIONS |
The traditional process of
preparing it is to dry the fish in the sun before being preserved in salt. It
has a distinctive stench to it, that only its true lovers would appreciate.
The process of preparing feseekh
is quite elaborate, passing from father to son in certain family. The
occupation has a special name in Egypt, fasakhani فسخاني
Feseekh is traditionally eaten
during Sham El Neseem شم النسيم ("Smelling the Breeze"), which is a spring
celebration from ancient times in Egypt.
Every year, just before Sham El
Neseem, there is a scare about feseekh consumption, and its dangers. This is
not unfounded, because when prepared or stored incorrectly, Feseekh can be
indeed deadly, due to toxins by food poisoning bacteria. Baldwin I, King of
Jerusalem learned that the hard way, meeting his death after a feseekh meal in
Egypt's north.
Little has changed since the time
of the Pharaohs, apparently.
Happy Sham El-Nessim!
* This story was first published
in April 2014 Al-Ahram
