Islamic holidays
Most Islamic holidays and festivals follow the Islamic calendar. This is lunar-based, so dates vary each year in relation to the Western calendar. You may find it useful to get hold of an annual prayer calendar from a local Islamic cultural centre in your own country.

The twelve months are Moharrem (30 days), Safar (29 days), Rabi al-Awwal (30 days), Rabi el-Tani (29 days), Gumad al-Awwal (30 days), Gumad el-Tani (29 days), Ragab (30 days), Sha'ban (29 days), Ramadan (30 days), Shawwal (29 days), Zoul Qiddah (30 days) and Zoul Hagga (29 days - or 30 days in leap years).

See overleaf for the estimated starting dates of Moharrem (which begins on Ras el-Sana el-Hegira) for the next three years. Note that a day in the Islamic calendar begins at sundown, as a consequence of which Islamic festivals start on the evening before you'd expect.

Moulids
Moulids are the equivalent of medieval European saints' fairs: popular events combining piety, fun and commerce. Their ostensible aim is to obtain blessing ( baraka) from the saint, but the social and cultural dimensions are equally important. Moulids are an opportunity for people to escape the monotony of their hard-working lives in several days of festivities, and for friends and families from different villages to meet. Farming problems are discussed, as well as family matters - and marriage - as people sing, dance, eat and pray together.

The largest events draw crowds of over a million, with companies of mawladiya (literally, "moulid people") running stalls and rides, and music blaring into the small hours. Smaller, rural moulids tend to be heavier on the practical devotion, with people bringing their children or livestock for blessing, or the sick to be cured.

Coptic festivals
Egypt's Christian Coptic minority often attend Islamic moulids - and vice versa. Coptic moulids share some of the social and market functions of their Islamic counterparts, and, similarly, at their core is the celebration of a saint's name-day. As you'd expect, the major Christian events of the year are also celebrated.

The dates of Christmas (January 6/7), Epiphany (January 19) and the Annunciation (March 21) are as specified in the Julian calendar used by the Orthodox Church, but Easter and its related feast days are reckoned according to the solar Coptic calendar, and therefore differ from both the Orthodox and Western dates by up to one month.

Major saints' day events include the Moulid of St Damyanah (May 15-20), the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul (July 12), and various moulids of the Virgin and St George during August. Many of these are held at monasteries in Middle Egypt, the Delta and the Red Sea Hills.

Lastly, a Coptic festival (of pharaonic origin) celebrated by all Egyptians is the Sham el-Nessim , a coming-of-spring festival which provides the excuse for mass picnics. Its name literally means "Sniffing the Breeze".