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The Egyptian Government has announced the end of the quarantine in Egypt to be on 27th of June. And whether we are ready to go out and deal with the virus or not, the “quarantine” as we know it is officially over. And since we have spent four months bored, locked in our houses, Egyptians always had this method to make anything, intentionally or unintentionally, amusing.
Therefore, we’re celebrating the end of the quarantine by recalling six funny and entertaining things that happened in Egypt during the lockdown.
All the virus songs:
Lots of music producers released their own version of all the “Corona music.” Hip hop, Underground Rock, Electro Shaabi, Mahraganat. You name it. You can’t neglect or ignore all the songs you encountered skimming through your friends’ Instagram stories. And you wouldn’t dare to deny that you have caught yourself once or twice singing “labes kemama wana mesh damen, garatheem yama”
Face Masks Went Nuts:
The Egyptian market has made the best use out of the virus situation. For instance, the underwear brands that started producing face masks, and the printing houses and galleries that hit the market with imprinted and customized ones. You walk in the street, if you did, and the hilarious thing hits you: you see people with underwear brand names on their faces, or cool nifty designs. “Virus got nothing on us, we vibe when we gotta vibe!” said Egyptians.
Kites, Kites, Flying High:
Social media has been firing and trending with pictures and videos of kites. In some districts of Egypt, all neighbors decided to start flying colourful and decorated kites. Very symbolic of freedom: lovely and hopeful! However, people managed to find a way to add fun and sarcasm to this by comparing this scene to the attack of Dementors from Harry Potter. By the way, have you checked your mail for your Hogwarts letter? 5 points to Egyptians for their sense of humor!
Social Media, Again:
To be frank, Egyptian social media platforms are never still or boring: all the platforms are always up to something, good or bad. So, during the pandemic, everyone was either too bored to the extent they would start a cyber fight, make Tik Tok videos, or simply sit and watch comedians and influencers doing their thing. One of the most prominent trends was Khaled Mokhtar’s Instagram stories, and his characters “Bartaman el gada’ana” and “Samah Kobaya.” Almost, the only thing that Egyptians didn’t have to argue about.
I pretend, You Pretend, We Pretend:
People got too involved in their virtual lives; they even started living their normal everyday lifecycles on social media. Egyptian youth took the “fake it, till you make it” to the next level; they started creating Facebook groups in-which they would pretend to be a new thing every day “plotters, artists, Netflix actors, cartoon characters, opposite genders, etc.” Not only this, they also started going back in time, stimulating living their life before the lockdown, to their favorite places and events. They began expressing how much they miss their special spots and hope to go back to visit them soon. If that is not optimistic and witty, we don’t know what is!
Egypt Smelled Like.. Pastries?
Egypt is known for food and its talented youth, axiom! However, the boredom of the lockdown got everyone to explore their inner chef. Every single house in Egypt tried stepping up their baking and cooking game in April 2020, and historians should be taking notes. For example, the first few weeks of the pandemic, most of our Instagram stories and Facebook posts presented our marvelous creations in the kitchen. I, myself, is guilty of that. I even started thinking of going to culinary school after the quarantine is over. Because, obviously, if I got the cinnamon roll right from the first trial, I deserve a place next to Gordon Ramsay, don’t I? So do you.
Finally, and most importantly, no matter how you entertained yourself during this tough time or how you kept yourself physically and mentally safe, we are proud of you!
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