#egyptien

So, here are the two videos, the first one is the ceremony as is, the second is the one with the narration bits in English. I watched them both fully, the two videos are neat, but of course the one with the original narration is just a tiny bit smoother. Take your pick, or watch them both, more than once, which, I believe, is what you are going to do; I dare you not to. Here is the first one (and here is its url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpsCXRsfvpM, the museum's Youtube channel weirdly made this one private!):

And here is the second one with the narration bits in English (and here is its url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15hf3VFzYVc, in case it is not showing here on Tumblr or in case the museum's Youtube channel weirdly changes the availability or the shareability of this one too!):

Pay attention to the notes that appear on screen, because they are quite descriptive, and the ceremony is devided into themes.

The very first musical composition is a century old composition by none other than the great Egyptian composer, singer, and songwriter Sayed Darwish, beloved of all Egyptians. The original composition by Sayed Darwish has vocals with lyrics about the heritage that our ancient Egyptian ancestors left for us, about the greatness of Egyptian history, the Pyramids, and my favorite part of the lyrics is the part that says about our ancient Egyptian ancestors "our ancestors created wonders ... thousands of years belong to them, and the world may end, but they will remain extant".

Egyptian soprano Sherin A. Tarek draws us closer at the beginning, and I love how after starting to draws us in, she takes a few steps closer to us herself, and she does it more than once, which is in line with how the "Melody of Peace" should be about everyone in the world taking at least a step closer to each other; I don't know if that was choreographed or if she did that on her own, maybe even unconsciously out of an understanding of Hisham Nazih's musical genius, if so, then what a brilliant woman she is in general, in addition to the brilliance of her musical talent.

I want to mention one thing here that I mentioned before in my posts 4 years ago about the Pharaohs' Golden Parade and the Sphinx Avenue Opet Festival, which is that I believe that when it comes to music, among other things, nations have this psychological tendency to produce distinct music that is characteristic to them and that capture something about them, without even being aware of it. The "Melody of Peace" shows that even when it is the same composition created by the same composer (the brilliant Egyptian composer Hisham Nazih) there will still be something in the music that will represent the different nations, even the nation that should have the least obvious musical distinction, which in this case is the United States, still shows a distinction; here, it is the bold and projecting spirit which reflects the character of Americans in general, their part of the melody is almost individualistic in spirit, it made the Statue of Liberty in the background seem like it has just lifted its torch proudly. In fact, my first perception that Americans have a musical style even in established classical music was way back after listening to Leonard Bernstein's interpretations and works. Despite their foreign policies and the bad things that their military did over the decades, Americans should be appreciated as the ones that are currently holding the torch of liberty high in their own country; not perfect, but way higher than the majority of nations. This is also, again, a testimony to the brilliance of Hisham Nazih.

Hisham Nazih is representing the themes throughout this entire ceremony with musical finesse. Egyptian musical instruments are also present, mostly inconspicuously; listen closely, and watch closely.

It is an absolute joy that our beloved Egyptian icon Sherihan was in this event, narrating and making an appearance, she has been doing such things for a long time. This may not be significant to non-Egyptians, but every Egyptian was ecstatic to see her in this event.

Meow. Cats are represented in passing, after the darbuka came to the foreground around minute 20:00; thanks, Hisham Nazih.

Oh, and the current official name of our country was uttered, I consider this an invitation to be disgusted and to say something about it. Every single one of us Egyptians has the right to say it: that disgusting word in the official name of our country must be removed, enough with that disgusting political nonsense that was created by the damn parasitic Levantines and foisted on Egypt until it was adopted by misguided Egyptian leaders in the 1960s. We Egyptian nationalists must be more demanding about this, eventually we will have our way, we are a sovereign nation, it is time for our leaders to act as such in this regard. Not only do we want to remove that disgusting word, but also our country deserves its original ancient Egyptian name restored: kmt/kmy/ⲕⲏⲙⲉ.

The beautiful, magnificent ancient Egyptian language is present in this ceremony both in an older form and in its Coptic stage. The beautiful Coptic stage of our ancient Egyptian language is present in a Christian hymn and in the song about the Nile. The Modern Egyptian Language, Masri, which is the language that we Egyptians currently speak (which has Coptic as its substrata and follows a subset of Coptic grammar) is also present both in the narration and in the songs.

The disgusting Arabic language was present, but only in limited places, mainly in a speech and a single part of the narration; and no, I'm not going to be nice about this; it is the language of a bunch of vile Semitic West Asian nomadic marauder Arabs that invaded our country at our time of weakness, due to the dying of the Byzantine empire, and did what nomadic marauders do, raid and plunder and pillage, and they are still nomadic-marauding in many ways using their petrodollar instead of swords, and they will not stop because they desire a complete death of Egypt, which is never going to happen, but that is not the point. Here in this case, the only non-disgusting thing about that disgusting language is that it is pronounced with an Egyptian tongue and Egyptian pronunciaion, which renders it palatable to an extent, because any Egyptian trying (and always having the honor of failing) to speak that disgusting language will do so without the sounds, the intonation, the articulation, etc, that make the Arabs sound disgusting, among many other things (by the way, these nomadic marauder Arabs are always vile toward Egyptians, but they are currently being more vile than usual toward Egyptians, with organized cyberbullying, and nomadic-marauding the comments on every Egyptian post online, with insults thrown left and right at Egyptians, and the remarkable thing is how organized they are this time, so I decided to mention this here at the risk of tarnishing this post, because you will see it everywhere you look; these nomadic marauder Arabs are actually worse than the deluded Afrocentrists, but one fight at a time, or all at once, whatever).

The Nubian language, or to be precise one Nubian langauge, was there as well, at the beginning of the song about the Nile. Nubian Egyptian brethren are generally nice people.

The song about the Nile is in Masri and the Coptic stage of our ancient Egyptian language; in Masri by Egyptian singer Haneen El-Shater, she also wrote the song, it is essentially a love song for the Nile and the effect the Nile has on our Egyptian psyche, she describes the Nile, its beauty, its kindness, its generosity, and its warm presence in our country and in our hearts, followed by a chant for the Nile in the Coptic stage of our beautiful ancient Egyptian language. The Nile figures heavily in our Egyptian songs by the way, so one more beautiful song for the Nile. And, I love that with the focus on the Nile comes naturally the focus on the fact that our ancient Egyptian civilization is an agricultural civilization, every detail of our ancient Egyptian civilization is based on farming in one way or another, being an Egyptian is being an agriculturalist to the core, which manifests itself in our general attitude, it is who we are.

I'm not going to say anything about the attire, the choreography, and the visual harmony of the entire ceremony, except from saying that I'm not going to say anything about the attire, the choreography, and the visual harmony of the entire ceremony.

Nice touch showing Egyptian obelisks adorning several places in the civilized world; it is a moment that is both happy and sad, whether we Egyptians should be more happy or more sad is something to ponder, but nice touch, obelisks are a wondrous Egyptian creation.

You know what else is a nice touch, a kid exploring the museum, that is how adults will also feel, let us all cherich the things that make us feel like kids again.

And look at those violins played perfectly by these two wonderful Egyptian violinists (Amira and Mariam), I'm still humming those notes and swinging to and fro. It is a nice thing when violinists come in two's. The violins perfectly convey the overwhelmingness one might feel amongst all the beauty of that large amount of artifacts and monuments, the kid was racing the violins, so should the kid in each one of us.

Egyptian soprano Fatma Said is always wonderful, both when she sings and when she narrates. She narrates in Masri (and in English in the second video) and also sings in Masri in the Final Song.

البدو .. رحلة ضعيف

البدو.. أناس قرروا العيش على هامش الحياة متحررين من التعلق بالمكان عدسة : محمد محسن

شاهد فليم "البدو.. رحلة ضعيف" عبر الرابط التالي:

And here is the second video:

So, the Opet Festival Parade surpassed the parade from the Pharaohs' Golden Parade for a lot of reasons. First, the temples were an efficient time machine, and everything else, from the light reflected from the water onto the temple walls at the very beginning, the very start of the music and the ethereal reverb, the subtle harp, the subtle movements of the dancers, the mystic lighting, the incense smoke, the attire, among many other things, including the overall atmosphere, put one in a state of trance, it was ethereal in every way, but most importantly, it is entirely about the rituals. And the woman on top of the temple, she made me feel like a "naddaha" is about to call for me. Like I said, the Opet Festival Parade was ethereal. I hope Dr. Khaled el-Anany (our Egyptian minister of Antiquities and Tourism) manages to make it into an annual event, he expressed his desire to do so; if there is a festival that deserves to be an annual celebration, then it is the Opet Festival, for many reasons, including that it is still alive to this day in Egypt, see below. Now, the hymn to ı͗mn (the great god Amun), and the hymn to queen Hatshepsut (ḥꜣ.t šps.wt, may her name be forever spoken) were absolutely magnificent and beautiful, and all of us Egyptians got goosebumps while listening to them, they, too, were ethereal, they were like a call from the ancient past. So, when I maintain, and I'm sure the majority of Egyptians will agree, that the hymn to ꜣs.t remains unsurpassed, this only attests to how much the hymn to ꜣs.t affected us Egyptians, it was just a moment of pure worship. But still, the hymn to ı͗mn and the hymn to ḥꜣ.t šps.wt from this event were mesmerizing, and made me feel like I was dreaming, a moment of worship befitting the greatness of ı͗mn, and the decision that a male voice is the proper choice for that part of the hymn to ı͗mn is genius; my spirit was elevated into a trance every time he chanted "ı͗mn-rꜥ". I can’t stop thinking about the event, and the one thing I can't get out of my head is the following. The single most important thing that all of us Egyptians should pay attention to is, there is an artistic style that has taken shape, from the two events; the choreography, the ritualistic atmosphere, the attire, the characteristically Egyptian compositions that use Egyptian musical instruments and captures the spirit of us Egyptians in characteristically Egyptian orchestras coupled with the hymns in our beautiful ancient Egyptian language, the decorations that has ancient Egypt written all over it, etc., are becoming definite, any subsequent event, and by the way there will be many more to come, should maintain the basic elements from that style, with variations and innovations of course, there is something that has developed here from the ancient traditions, and it is magnificent. These are crucial steps toward culture revitalization, as in this is part of how it actually starts to happen. The most crucial step however is our ancient Egyptian language, that must be taken to the next step, if not by our government, then by us Egyptians, and I'm aware that many Egyptians, including myself, are already fully engaged with our ancient Egyptian language. Another thing that is crucial to any cultural revitalization is the architecture, and that too has been developing in the new administrative capital of Egypt, but that requires another post, which I'll probably make at some point, but suffice it to say here that the architecture of the new capital of Egypt has ancient Egypt written all over it. I'm certain the Egyptians behind the making of these events are indeed fully aware of these things, given the speeches that our president has been giving regarding the Egyptian identity, the visual identity, and the freedom of religion; one of his most important statements which he made several times is that "every Egyptian has the freedom to believe or disbelieve"; I consider this to be the single most important statement from an Egyptian president in the history of modern Egypt. The single most important one. I just hope the rest of the institutions follow in his footsteps, but I also hope he is willing to take this to the next level; he has the sweeping majority of us Egyptians by his side, specially the youth, but the religious institutions are engaged in a witch-hunt, let alone that medieval "law" which the religious institutions rely on in their witch-hunt; that medieval "law" has to be completely removed. I mentioned in my previous post about the event that the Opet Festival is one of the ancient festivals that survive in Egypt to this day in new clothes, so let's talk about the rituals of Abu-elHaggag's Moulid. The moulid of Abu-elHaggag is one of thousands of moulids in Egypt, its rituals are the same rituals of the Opet Festival. I'm quite happy that they talked about this in the event itself. It is not just Abu-elHaggag's moulid that I wanted to talk about, the "moulid" iself is an Egyptian invention, and the moulids in Egypt are going on almost all year long, we have thousands of them, because we Egyptians glorify our local figures in a tradition that is traceable back to ancient times, the rituals of the moulids are also traceable back to ancient times, Egyptians build "domes" for these figure, and visit them constantly, they are considered a connection between the Egyptians and their god, just like the ancient tradition, this has nothing to do with the vile things that came from Semitic West-Asia (all of them), this is an ancient tradition, these figures do not mean anything to anyone outside the Egyptian village, and certainly none of these figures mean anything to anyone outside Egypt. We not only celebrate the moulids (births), we also have rituals for death, some of them are, peculiarly, called "moulids" too! These nomenclatures are important, because they say something about our worldview and its ancient origin. The worldview of rural Egyptians in particular has nothing to do with the vile things that came from Semitic West-Asia (all of them), except in a very shallow manner, our worldview is mythological in character, specially rural Egyptian women, but I won't talk about these things; whenever I decide to talk at length about these things it will be in the language that we speak. I should also mention in passing that we parade the dead from their homes to their tombs before burying them, but that is a very long story for another time; just a single word/hint to the hypothetical Egyptian that is reading this: “fly”. When they were showing Abu-elHaggag's moulid in the event, at 52:20 in the second video, the chants were something I'm quite familiar with; being a rural Egyptian myself, I was constantly surrounded by these voices and rituals while growing up, my village (which is in Middle Egypt; Middle Egypt is usually considered part of Upper Egypt by the way) had its own figure that was celebrated, a village next to ours had two, and both villages celebrated each other's figures. As a young teenager, I participated several times in what is known as Zikr/Zar rituals in my village, so these sounds and chants made me feel like I was sitting right there with them, because these are the typical voices you hear in these rituals. In my previous post about this event, which was 26 days ago, when I wrote that I was going to go into details about the survival of the Opet Festival in new clothes, I intended to share a few things here, and I'm extremely happy that a lot of Egyptians have beaten me to it and shared these things on Twitter, this makes me truly happy, because the numbers of Egyptians fighting for their history and heritage and for its revitalization are exponentially increasing. Here is a video, made in 1925 and shared by the MET, that shows Abu-elHaggag's moulid, as well as showing the overall cultural continuity between ancient Egypt and modern Egypt, specially rural Egypt, I'm familiar with everything in this video:

And here is a video showing Abu-elHaggag's moulid from 1975:

And here is a video showing Abu-elHaggag's moulid from 2015:

Again, as I mentioned in my previous post about the event, ancient Egyptian culture is not dead in any sense, it survives in every inch of Egypt. Back to the event. One of the things that should always be mentioned is, the magnificence of Egyptian women. I will always say this over and over again: Egyptian women have an amazing sense of Egyptian culture. And this is prevalent even in a simple clapping of the hand. They naturally excel at whatever they do. May they be freed from the shackles put on them by the vile things that came from Semitic West-Asia (all of them). Oh, and let's not forget to mention the "tahtib" that was quickly shown in the event, at 39:17 in the first video, and it is in the video from 1925 above, in which it is called "single stick contests". Tahtib is an ancient Egyptian practice, it is practiced in Upper Egypt, including Middle Egypt, exactly the same way as it is depicted on temple walls. I wish they focused more on it in this event, but they had so much to do, if they focused on everything that was shown the event could easily become about 10 hours long or something, I myself wouldn't have minded this event being 10 hours long. The music throughout was just magnificent, each part/movement actually has the potential to be developed into an entire work in and of itself, certain parts felt like an overture. I hope our great Nader Abbasi collaborates with other Egyptian composers and actually develop these into further pieces; it will not happen, but I just thought I should put the idea out there. Also the subtle mention of the Nile waters, and its absolute importance to us Egyptian, both on a spiritual level as well as all other levels. There is a subtle nod there if you are following the current events in the region. I will think of this event as a seed, and if there is something a rural Egyptian knows, it's what happens to a seed when it gets planted and cared for. Here are a few photos I snapshotted from the event for documentation purposes; I have successfully resisted the urge to put every single frame from the Opet Festival Parade here:

The Opet Festival Parade: