Farasha (Folk Fabric for Celebrations)

During Ramadan, and other important festivities such as weddings, you will find these beautiful sheets of fabric with traditional traditional patterns all over them. Entire tents are constructed from these, housing everything from stands selling Ramadan delights, to entire wedding parties. Brightly colored, they are reminiscent of the bright colors of the Sufi dancers in Egypt and the brightly colored homes in the countryside.

Celebration Streamers

When there is a celebration, it is time to hang up lights and beautiful swathes of traditional folk fabric, and streamers (or often a combination of all three together).

A street lined with shiny tinsel streamers

Streamers hanging outside of a meat shop (Mr. Meat).

Belly Dance

When people think about belly dance - usually a sequined open bellied seductress comes to mind. While these do abound at weddings and hotels, there are also more traditional fully clothed versions of belly dancers too, in a variety of amazing colorful folkloric fabulous costumes. Egyptian dance is playful, creative, can tell a (humorous/love) story, and can feature everything from traditional dance of men fighting with sticks to ladies balancing large brass (and lit) candelabras on their heads.

Saying "I love you" with your car horn

Music  and poetry is everywhere,
even in honking your car

In Cairo, the roadways are the very pulse of the city and are as musical as the rest of Egypt. 

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Well, fair enough. On the roadways here, the drivers have their own system of messages conveyed just through the beats of the car horn. 

If you beat it out to: ba-ha-bak (I love you), then you are saying thank you to the car ahead of you for being nice, maybe letting you pass. There is also a wedding march that echoes across Cairo streets from throngs of cars every weekend from all of the regular wedding festivities.