Sham Ennessim

Egyptian national festival

Sham Ennessim (شم النسيم, Sham Al Nassim or Sham an Nassim; Egyptian Arabic: Sham Ennesim, ; , Shom Ennisim) is an Egyptian national festival marking the beginning of spring, as it originates from the ancient Egyptian Shemu festival. It is celebrated by all Egyptians and is announced by the state as a public holiday. Sham Ennessim always falls on Easter Monday, which is the day after Easter, in accordance with the Coptic Orthodox Church. The festival has been nationally celebrated by all the Egyptians since ancient times, and through the phono semantic reanalysis of "En ni sim" as the Egyptian Arabic form of the assimilated definite article "En " and "nesim", "Shom Ennisim" became "Sham Ennesim".

After the Christianization of Egypt, the festival became associated with the other Christian spring festival, Easter. Over time, Shemu morphed into its current form and its current date. The date of Easter, and therefore of Easter Monday, is determined according to the Eastern Christian manner of calculation as used by the Coptic Orthodox Church, the largest Christian denomination in the country.

As Egypt became Islamized, the term Shemu/Shom Ennisim found a rough phono semantic match in Sham Ennesim, or "Smelling/Taking In the Zephyrs," which was quite limited after the conversion to Islam in Egypt, but that cannot be taken to be the reason why the Muslim Egyptians collectively celebrate the festival with its exact same ancient Egyptian celebratory traditions, Sham Ennesim is only reported as a festival celebrated by the Egyptians with no reference to any religion, as illustrated above, and as being observed specifically on the first day of the Khamaseen; it is important to note that the first day of the Khamaseen is not always synchronized with the day immediately following Easter, which makes Lane's report of the festival as being observed specifically on the first day of the Khamaseen quite significant.

As of today, Egyptians still celebrate Sham Ennessim on Easter Monday. As illustrated above, even though the festival falls on Easter Monday, which is the case for historical reasons, the festival is not related to Abrahamic religions. It does not have more meaning for the Christian Egyptians than it does for the Muslim Egyptians, or for any other Egyptian outside those two faiths.