Tuesday March 19th, 2024
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7 Different Types of Egyptians Who Emerge During Ramadan

Ramadan is considered a holy month and so most people try to be the best versions of themselves. With that in mind, they adopt some very interesting habits and almost become different people. Here are seven of their Ramadan personas.

Staff Writer

We’re in Egypt, which means that pretty much the whole country is doing Ramadan or they at least acknowledge it in some way. But we all wait for Ramadan for different reasons. While our primary goal is to fast the entire month without skipping a day, some of us secretly (or not so much) have certain rituals that we uphold. Sometimes we use it to try and lose weight, to watch every mosalsal ever made, or even to decorate the entire house and street with banners and fairy lights. So we put together a list of seven different kinds of people that blossom during Ramadan and some of their peculiar habits.

Mosalsalat Junkie

You break your fast and get all of your prayers done faster than a two-year-old running for candy just so you can grab some leb and watch the seven mosalsalat you have lined up for each hour of the night. It’s essential you do this because what else are you supposed to tell cousin Fatma who is going to call you tomorrow morning to get your very thorough review of the episode? And if you were to go out for the night you’d probably go to The Nile Ritz-Carlton’s Wust El Balad Ramadan tent because they have the perfect ambience with enough TV screens for you to watch all your mosalsalat until Suhur time. But this time you can actually sit WITH cousin Fatma and have a running commentary on how amazing Khaled El Nabawy looks in Wahet El Ghoroub while having shisha (we know you’ll be watching it!).

El Leil W Akhro

What is sleep? This kind basically uses their entire annual leave during Ramadan so they can stay awake when the sun is down and sleep when the sun comes up. You spend the whole night out of the house on an ahwa in downtown Cairo and the ahwa is selected based on its close proximity to fool w falafel carts and fast food chains so you can keep them coming all night long. Either that or you find a place that’s willing provide you and your annoyingly loud friends with hospitality from Iftar all the way to Suhur.

The Suhur Skipper and the Iftar Pig

You’re all for the benefits of Ramadan in terms of good deeds and metabolic benefit of fasting, but that very first meal that interrupts your splendid slumber is really frustrating because you just can’t get back to sleep afterwards. So you decide to skip it and convince yourself that the hungrier you make yourself the more reward you get. But of course, by the time Iftar comes around you’re so ready to pig out. For this, we suggest Culina Restaurant’s buffet Iftar at the Nile Ritz-Carlton packed with Arab and International cuisine delicacies. Once you’re done with round five of your buffet invasion, you can tune into their interactive cooking and molecular gastronomy stations for dessert. You’re welcome.

The Opportunist

“So Ramadan is here, what are your goals this year? Are you going to make extra donations?” Your best friend asks you

“Actually, I think this is the year I am finally going to take advantage of fasting and actually lose weight,” you reply proudly.

And so you proceed to order food in the evenings from the nearest salad bar. You’ll probably also convince your friends spend Suhur at the Lobby Lounge in the Nile Ritz-Carlton because they’ll be serving quick and light continental style nibbles. You’ll also probably go right before Fajr prayer so you don’t overeat. Very tactical, you are.

The Serial Duaa Texter

Ramadan is the perfect time to pray and do good deeds. So you wake up for Suhur and send out a few prayers to all of your contacts, you have a quick bite from last night’s Iftar and a quick sip of water, and then send out some more duaas to your family. You sleep for a couple of hours and wake up to send about ten more floral pictures with duaa’s plastered in the middle. Of course because you’re short on time, you order the family some delivery for Iftar because you need all the time in the world to send even more blessings and cute Ramadan songs to your friends.

We all love to be inundated with Ramadan blessings and your prayers, tant Madeha. But we think you need to stop after 57 messages and seven videos in one day.

The Decoration Nazi

Pretty lanterns, fairy lights, Islamic art patterned table cloths, duaa filled shelf frames bordered with more fairy lights, baby-sized lanterns for your keys and some more hanging on every chandelier you own, more Islamic art on your bed sheets, and let’s not forget the triangular banners that mark the entrance of every room in your house. And when you decide to have a massive family gathering that won’t quite fit in your house, you make sure to go something like the Nile Ritz-Carlton’s Al Qahira or Alf Leila W Leila Ballroom. It’s got the dreamy lighting, the dramatic decorative fountain, chandeliers, and upholstered walls. You even try to find out where they got the decorations from because they’d make the perfect addition to your house.

The One Who Dreads 3azayem and Tant Sawsan’s Questions about Marriage

3o2bal ma nefra7 feek ya 7abebe. Enta f sana kam delwa2ty? 3azayem Ramadan make for great conversation for some reason. It’s okay 3ameto Sawsan, we’re only here because you make some damn good molokheya and we’ve been fasting all day and would really like to stuff our faces in silence. But we know this isn’t realistic so we’ll just order some take out and drive to Mokattam so we can eat alone in our car and in peace. Thank you, but no thank you. 

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