Though Egypt is an overwhelmingly Muslim country, millions of Copts celebrate Christmas there every year. The Coptic church is one of the oldest Christian denominations in the world. They note that Jesus spent his infancy in Egypt where the Holy Family fled Herod and claim their spiritual descent from St Mark, one of the original disciples. Copts have survived over 1300 years of Islamic rule by clinging to customs such as their unique Christmas which is far more a religious holiday than a time for conspicuous consumption.
Copts are great fasters — in fact most of the Coptic calendar is occupied by one fast or another. Christmas is preceded by a 43-day fast in which food and drink should be shunned from midnight to 3 p.m. and all meals should be vegetarian or fish. Prayer meetings and special Advent hymns are part of the pre-Christmas ritual as is increased charitable giving.
Because Copts also cling to their ancient calendar, Christmas itself is held on the 29th day of the Egyptian month of Kiakh — January 7 to that part of the world that uses the Gregorian system. The celebration begins on the night of Christmas Eve when families go to church for the midnight service. Qurban bread, marked with the cross and twelve dots representing the apostles, is distributed to those at the mass. Because tensions often exist between Muslims and Copts the Egyptian government and church officials are at pains to press for toleration and communal dialogue at Christmas. This is one reason why state television broadcasts the celebration of the midnight mass from the cathedral in Cairo.
After church people return home to break their fast and open gifts — Christmas Eve is an especially good time to receive new clothes. Christmas food includes a kind of shortbread or sweet biscuit known as kahk. Christmas Day is a holiday for Christians who will spend it visiting friends and relatives and eating.
In Egypt tourists can visit the Virgin’s Tree, an ancient sycamore in Mataria which supposedly sheltered the Holy Family and the Church of Abu Sergah (St Sergius) whose basilica is built on the cave in which the Holy Family is believed to have stayed.