• Skip to main content
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer

EgyptTravelBlog.com

General

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Page Layouts
    • Standard Content
    • Wide Content
    • Narrow Content
    • Content/Sidebar
    • Sidebar/Content
  • Sample Page
Buy Now

Categories

  • Demos
    • News
    • Tech
    • Sports
  • All Articles
  • Business
  • Cars
  • Electronics
  • Gaming
  • Contact

Newsletter

This form is for demo purposes only. Use whatever form/email/optin plugin you’d like.

* We don’t do spam, just the latest news. Sign up today and get our top stories delivered straight to your inbox.

  • Cities
    • Cairo
    • Giza
    • Luxor
    • Aswan
    • Abu Simbel
    • Alexandria
    • The Red Sea
    • Siwa
  • Sites
    • Pyramids & Sphinx
    • Downtown Cairo
    • Luxor Sites
    • Aswan Sites
    • Abu Simbel
    • Alexandria Sites
    • Edfu
    • Kom Ombo
    • Abydos
    • Dendera
    • Siwa
  • Museums
    • All Cairo Area Museums
    • Old Egyptian Museum
    • Grand Egyptian Museum
    • National Museum of Egyptian Civilization
    • Abdeen Palace Museum
    • Royal Carriages Museum
    • Manial Palace Museum
    • Nubian Museum
    • Sharm el-Sheikh Museum 
  • Food
  • Hotels
    • Cairo Hotels
    • Luxor Hotels
    • Red Sea Hotels
    • Alexandria Hotels
  • Advice
  • Trips
  • Podcast
Culture Neat Stuff

All About Christmas in Egypt

January 2, 2014 by John Navarre

Visitors to Egypt in the winter months might be surprised to find festive lights and Christmas trees scattered across central Cairo and certain other parts of Egypt. If you thought that by coming to an Islamic Middle Eastern country you’d be leaving the trappings of Christmas behind in the West, you were wrong.

Significant parts of Egypt still celebrate Christmas, especially in Cairo and other urban centers. But what’s really bizarre for many visitors is that Christmas in Egypt is celebrated both in December and in January. That’s because many hotels and other Western establishments that host tourists from Europe and North America know that their guests are in the middle of their native holiday period in December and show respect for those foreign traditions by decorating with trees and lights.

But many people don’t know that there’s also a very substantial native Christian population that has lived in Egypt for two thousand years and remains there today. They’re called the Copts locally, and they’re part of a branch of the Eastern Orthodox Christian faith tradition. They even have their own Pope and all.

Copts make up about 10-20% of the Egyptian population, depending on whom you ask, which at nearly 100 million strong today puts the Coptic minority at about 9 million strong. In January, the Copts also celebrate their own Christmas, and lights and trees and such continue to be festively displayed all over Egypt.

So if you ever find yourself in Egypt in late December, you’ll find your holiday and religious traditions proudly respected and celebrated. And if you’re there in early January, you’ll be able to participate in one of the world’s oldest true Christmas celebrations with descendants of one of the original Christian sects founded by St. Mark just 9 short years after the resurrection and ascension of Christ.

Pretty neat, huh?

You May Also Like…

Common Misconceptions about Egypt: Fact vs. Fiction

Egypt marks Mawlid al-Nabi in the sweetest way

Manial Palace Museum

Royal Carriages Museum

About etb

Egypt Travel Blog is the world’s #1 most trusted resource for info, insights, tips, reviews, and advice on travel to and around Egypt. ETB is more honest and practical than official or commercial sites, more in-depth and dynamic than books or travel guides, and more entertaining and interactive than any other source of information available on travel to Egypt.

Read more about ETB here…

Categories

Cities & Regions

Sites & Monuments

Museums

Latest News

Food & Dining

Hotel Reviews

Travel Advice

Tour Companies

Newsletter

Join our “Egypt Insider” newsletter for periodic updates and developments in Egypt.

Your Country
Your Email
Loading

No spam, ever.

Copyright © 2023 · EgyptTravelBlog.com · ALL RIGHTS RESERVED in all countries and jurisdictions