The festival of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which took place on Saturday 15 August, received unprecedented recognition in the public sphere in Egypt. The festival is celebrated by Coptic Orthodox Christians, Catholics, and many other denominations worldwide, who believe that Mary was bodily taken up into heaven at the end of her life.
Throughout Thursday, Friday and Saturday, a number of presenters on Egyptian radio talk-shows were making references to the “feast of the Virgin Mary” and sending their regards “not just to the Christians of Egypt but to all of us Egyptians who hold Sitana Mariam [Our Lady Mary] to be the holiest of the women of the world.” It is true that the obvious Biblical reference of: “Blessed thou among women, and blessed the fruit of thy womb” was not in use. However, the Quranic equivalent of: “The angels said, 'Oh Mary! God has chosen you and purified you, chosen you above the women of all nations,” was heard.
And in a remarkable gesture, the weekly newspaper Al-Qahira (Cairo), a publication funded by the Ministry of Culture, dedicated a full article to the most famous portrait of Mary “in order to celebrate the Holy Assumption.” “We were not sure about the pictures of Virgin Mary; because while we know that all Egyptians, both Muslims and Christians, have exceptional love and respect for the Virgin Mary, we were not sure that the Muslim majority would feel comfortable with the idea of the pictures especially, some which include pictures of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ,” said a member of the editorial board of the online edition.
Whereas Mary is holy figure within both Christianity and Islam, the two religions differ on whether Jesus – or Isa in Arabic – is the son of God, or merely a human prophet. This is precisely the reason that the Egyptian state, during the last decade of the rule of former president Hosni Mubarak, chose to make Christmas a public holiday and not Easter – the latter being the more significant festival for Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church.
