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The streets of Cairo will come alive a few minutes after the sunset Athaan (call to Prayer), with vendors selling everything from Basboosah (a traditional dessert made of semolina flour, yogurt, and coconut) to Faanoos (lantern) to jasmine on a string. Colorful paper banners will hang between buildings signaling that the greatest month has come again.
Dried plums, apricots, and dates will circulate the kitchens of the Big Mango city. Children and adults alike will delight in the traditional "Qamar eddeen", a thick apricot drink made from sheets of apricot paste. The shelves of food stores will once again be home to the "hair-doughed" Kunaafah and syrup-drenched Qataayif sweets.
"Ramadan in Egypt is very much in the streets," says Noorah Hussein, a mother of two who has spent 25 Ramadan in Cairo. "The children are so happy, and people seem so close to one another."
Everyday, Egyptians remember the significant aspects of Ramadan by setting up tents and places in the streets where the needy can have Iftaar (fast-breaking meal) for free. The taxi drivers in their old, black-and-white cars are cheerful as they zoom around the Tahreer Square area or down the Alexandria corniche looking for customers in their way to restaurants.
"Ramadan in Egypt is different form anywhere else in the world," says Hussein, smiling due to the joyous memories it brings her. "I don’t know how a place could be more alive than here. Even the pyramids and the Nile seem to come alive."
