Posts under Culture

Meals

Posted by Aziza
Oct
29
2009

The work day in the Arab world is usually shorter than the work day in the West, especially for the bureaucratic class of employees, which represents a major percentage of the work force and of society as a whole. Work starts usually at around 8.30 am, and ends at around 2.30 pm. Therefore, people do not usually need to have lunch at work. Instead, lunch (الغَدَاء) is eaten at home, and it is the main meal of the day. In this way, meals (الوَجَبات) in the Arab world are different from the West, as most people in the West have their main meal at supper or dinner (العَشَاء). Breakfast (الإفْطار) is a very important meal for families, especially if they have children. Meals differ considerably from one country to another in the Arab world. Each country has its own distinctive dishes. An Egyptian breakfast would typically have cheese (جُبن), falafel (فلافل), bread (خُبْز) and tea (شَاي). An Egyptian lunch would typically have salad (سَلَطة) or soup (شوربَة), meat (لَحْم), vegetables (خُضرَوات) and rice (أَرُزّ) or bread (خُبْز) and fruits (فَواكِه). Dinner would be light, such as sandwiches (سندوتشات). These are only examples and the options are many.

 
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Omar Sharif

Posted by Aziza
Oct
17
2009

Omar Sharif (عمر الشريف) is a very famous Egyptian actor who became a world-renowned star. He was born in Alexandria on the 10th of April, 1932 to a rich Catholic family, and his original name was Michael Demitri Shalhoub. As a child, he was fat and liked eating so much; therefore, his mother insisted on sending him to a British school so that he becomes more disciplined and loses weight. So, he joined Victoria College in Alexandria, where he was very much interested in learning languages and in theatre. He performed his first school play at the age of 12, and he enjoyed it so much that he decided to become an actor despite objections from his father who wanted him to become a merchant like himself.

Omar Sharif

After graduating from the American University in Cairo with a degree in mathematics and physics, Omar started to pursue a career as an actor. His friend Youssef Shahin (يوسف شاهين), a famous Egyptian director, offered him the chance to have his first appearance as a star in (صراع في الوادي) “Struggle in the Valley” which was very successful. Faten Hamama (فاتن حمامة) who later became his wife co-starred this film with him. When he decided to marry Faten, he converted to Islam. After their marriage, they worked together on a very large number of films including (أيامنا الحلوة) “Our sweet days”, (لا أنام) “I cannot Sleep”, (سيدة القصر) “the lady of the palace”, among others. Their marriage lasted for more than 15 years, and they had one son.

Omar Sharif & Faten Hamama

Omar Sharif started his career outside Egypt with his famous film (لورانس العرب) “Lawrence of Arabia” in 1962 which won him international recognition and fame. Sharif has been nominated for an Academy Award and has won a Golden Globe for this film. After that, he starred a number of famous films, e.g “Doctor Zhivago” and “Funny Girl.” Omar Sharif returned to Egypt in the nineties, and he acted some films including (الأراجوز), and one TV soap called (حنان وحنين).

Omar Sharif

 
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Telling the time

Posted by Aziza
Sep
29
2009

What is the time?

كم الساعة؟

It is half past ten

الساعة العاشرة والنصف

 

Telling the time in Arabic is very easy. We use ordinal numbers with hours, except one o’clock, as follows:

One O’clock

الساعة الواحدة

Two O’clock

الساعة الثانية

Three O’clock

الساعة الثالثة

Four O’clock

الساعة الرابعة

Five O’clock

الساعة الخامسة

Six O’clock

الساعة السادسة

Seven O’clock

الساعة السابعة

Eight O’clock

الساعة الثامنة

Nine O’clock

الساعة التاسعة

Ten O’clock

الساعة العاشرة

Eleven O’clock

الساعة الحادية عشرة

Twelve O’clock

الساعة الثانية عشرة

 

To say ‘past’ in Arabic, we use ‘و‘ which comes after the hour, so half past two in Arabic would literally be ‘two o’clock and a half’ الساعة الثانية والنصف

past

و

Five past

وخمس دقائق

Ten past

وعشر دقائق

Quarter past

والربع

Twenty past

والثلث

Half past

والنصف

 

To say ’to’ in Arabic, we use ‘إلا which comes after the hour, so ‘quarter to three’ in Arabic would literally be ‘three o’clock less a quarter’ الساعة الثالثة إلا الربع

To

إلا

Five to

إلا خمس دقائق

Ten to

إلا عشر دقائق

Quarter to

إلا الربع

Twenty to

إلا الثلث

 

Now, can you make these expressions in Arabic?

It’s five o’clock.

It’s half past ten.

It’s five to six.

 
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Eid Al-Fitr

Posted by Aziza
Sep
19
2009

Today is the last day of the month of Ramadan (رمضان), the best and most important month for Muslims. At the end of the holy month of fasting (الصوم) and worship (العبادة), Muslims have a special feast called (عيد الفطر). It marks the end of Ramadan and lasts for 3 days. It starts on the first day of Shawwal (شوال), and lasts until day 3.

The Eid is celebrated in many ways. It has special ceremonies, most importantly the Eid prayer (صلاة العيد) which is a special prayer on the morning of the first day of the feast. It includes a religious speech that usually deals with the merits of the month of Ramadan and the joy of the feast. This prayer ends in special loud prayer to praise God called (تكبيرة العيد), shown in the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qps_qrKbK4

Another special tradition for the feast is to give money and food to the poor (زكاة العيد). This must be given before the end of the first day of the feast to make sure that everyone share and enjoy the feast.

The feast has social traditions, as family members visit each other and exchange presents and children are given money (العيدية) to buy presents of their choice. Young people enjoy this occasion very much. Most young people get new clothes for the feast, and they wear them on the first day. They go out together and enjoy themselves. Cinemas show new movies and television stations broadcast special programs.

As for food, mothers bake all sorts of lovely biscuits and cookies (كعك العيد). There is nothing like mother’s home-made biscuits with warm tea for breakfast on the first day of the feast. My mother has baked 3 varieties for me this year, and they are absolutely delicious! I can’t wait for tomorrow morning!

كل عام وانتم بخير!

 

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Ramadan habits

Posted by Aziza
Aug
23
2009

Today is the second of Ramadan in the Hijri year 1430. Nabeel kindly commented on my previous post and gave a more accurate definition for fasting as “Fasting means willing abstention from eating, drinking and satisfaction of certain demands of the flesh, from predawn to sunset.”

 In fact, this alerted me that I mentioned briefly that Ramadan is a very spiritual time of the year without explaining in which ways. In Ramadan, Muslims should not only give up food and drink, but also give up bad habits and conducts, e.g. telling lies, making jokes at others, gossip, etc. People are ordered to give up any act that might harm others no matter how small. Of course people should do that all year round, but in Ramadan people tend to be more careful about what they say and do, and they tend to pay more attention to worshipping and be more obedient to God’s orders.

People celebrate Ramadan and enjoy it. If you live in an Arab country, you will find a lot of manifestations of these celebrations, often people decorate the mosques with lights, and also decorate their homes and streets. Parents usually buy lanterns for their kids called (فانوس), which are only used in Ramadan. In the past, when I was a kid, we used to put a small candle inside it, but now they all come with a small lamp. We visited relatives and friends and sang special songs for Ramadan, and we used to get a lot of money and candy during these visits. Nowadays, most lanterns come a small microphone that does the singing as well!

lantern

Ramadan has its own special foods like (خشاف) which is made up of dried fruits like dates, apricots, prunes, raisins, etc.  soaked with water and milk, and a lot of special patries and sweets like baklava (بقلاوة) , konafa (كنافة) and katayef (قطايف). I will put pictures of them below. Each country has its own special Ramadan foods.

 

Ramadan pastries

 Ramadan has some very special things, like (مدفع الإفطار) which is a traditional cannon that makes a loud noise at sunset to alert people to the time to break their fast. It is usually shown on television

 

cannon

 
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