Days pass through successive generations, each leaves only a beautiful memory in minds and hearts, and glimpses of joy drawn on faces, in reverence and appreciation for all what is humanitarian that fills human life with joys. From those days, we learned to share feasts and celebrations that brings pleasure to the entire Egyptian entity, for that, I would like to congratulate our Muslim brothers in Egypt, the Arab world and the whole world on Eid al-Fitr, wishing all Egyptians happiness, and our dear country all the best, peace and prosperity.
Despite feasts celebration ways differ from a person to another, they all share some concepts, the most important of which are:
Sharing
The feast, in Egypt particularly, is associated with the happiness that gathers the members of one family together, mostly in the Big House, where different generations meet and communicate in an indissoluble line, sharing the joys which give a bright feature to our strange heavy days. And thus, the bonds of the whole family deepen.
Sharing is also found among the members of the same nation, in a great epic scene that brings together the members of the great family celebrating the joy of the feast, as well as in the grief pains that they may pass through.
My mind recalls beautiful images that we all have experienced; hearing knocks at your house door, and a friend or neighbor hurries to wish you a happy feast, in voice tones bearing the pulse of friendliness, love and sharing “Rejoice with those who rejoice”. And thus, Egypt is always the icon of the one homeland with Muslim and Christian residents.
Everybody lives in one homeland, writing together in the pages of history that brings together the family of one nation. So we have learned, and so we have grown up, and so we have lived.
Also, feasts reveal another type of sharing when those who have remember their brethren who don’t have in order to share the feast of joy; it is sharing of love, mercy and compassion that flows between them; hearts filled with abundant love present from what God granted them to poor and needy people like the miserable, the poor, and the orphans, each according to his needs.
Egyptians are accustomed to, on a wide scale, derive their real happiness from their giving in feasts which are opportunities to please others.
Since giving is a method of thanking God – blessed be His name – for His good and endless blessings, and a method of bringing joy into the hearts of people, it is actually a source of real happiness to him who gives.
It is the happiness of giving that not even the treasures of the entire universe can be equivalent to it! Only the hearts that knew the way to it are aware of such happiness. But at the same time, we have to realize that this sharing is not only about material things, but rather there are many types of sharing and different levels of giving: like a visit you pay to your neighbors or friends who may have nobody to remember them. This would make them happy at feasts, you may offer compassion to suffering hearts on the feast day.
Tolerance
Feast is also associated with the notion of tolerance: How beautiful it would be when our feasts are filled with pure hearts which forget the abuse to make all people happy together! The heart that bears the grudge has no place for happiness, while the heart that knows love, tolerance and goodness is a throne for peace and non diminishing joy. Due to the short life we live, we have to be keen in filling its moments with all that is good and beautiful, reflected in our attitudes towards ourselves and others.
Happy Feast to all of you… And stories never end in beautiful Egypt
