ABU DHABI // Thousands of Egyptian Christians are celebrating Christmas across the Emirates on Wednesday.
Children dressed in colourful traditional dresses filled the capital’s Coptic church on Tuesday for evening mass to mark Christmas Eve. They stayed well into the night for gospel readings, followed by a dinner in the early hours of Christmas morning.
But amid the celebrations also comes a message of peace, something many Egyptians have found precious little of in their homeland in recent times.
“Jesus is the apostle of peace, so we want this peace to prevail in the entire region as well as the world. Our Christmas is just praying and fasting,” said Aziz Adil Aziz, an Egyptian Copt.
“We have been enjoying the kind of peace and tranquillity in the UAE that sometimes we don’t find in our own country, Egypt. We live together and nobody asks about religion in the UAE, but in our country people ask about the religion.”
He thanked the ruling families of the country for giving Egyptians a peaceful and happy life in the UAE.
Whereas the majority of the world’s Christians celebrated Christmas on December 25, Copts celebrate on January 7. The Copts in the UAE are mostly from Egypt. Of the 350,000 Egyptians in the UAE, about 30,000 are Copts.
The Copts are the native Christians of Egypt, a major ethnoreligious group and the largest Christian group there.
Yulia Barsoom, from Belarus and married to an Egyptian, attended evening mass with her two children, Anastasia, 7, and Peter, 3. “We have been fasting for 50 days, and today we are going to break after midnight. It’s very exciting. My husband also fasted – even the kids tried for some days.
“There has been stress in Egypt and I pray peace for my country and the world.
“I’m really very happy that my children are growing up in a very safe country and they are getting good education.”
Hany Barsoom, who has lived in the UAE for 16 years, praised the UAE for being open for all nationalities and religions to practice their faith freely.
The services at St Anthony’s Orthodox Church in Abu Dhabi began at 7pm, with Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development, several Emirati business people, and Egypt’s ambassador to the UAE, Ehab Hammoda, attending.
In his speech to the parishioners, Sheikh Nahyan congratulated the Egyptians. “Egypt is a sister country for the Emirates and always we work together and our brotherly relations will further grow.”
“The UAE is keen to always be faithful and true to the principles of Islam and its timeless teachings of tolerance and mutual respect between different religions and beliefs,” Sheikh Nahyan said. “It is vital to maintain the values of brotherhood and communication among believers of various religions and to maintain respect for each other’s rights and values.”
Sheikh Nahyan expressed his joy at participating in the Christmas celebrations with the Coptic Church and prayed for happiness and peace for the UAE, Egypt and the rest of the Arab world.
Saad Rizkalle, a resident of Dubai who travelled to Abu Dhabi to attend the mass, said: “It’s the happiest day for us and we pray for peace in the entire Arab world.”
anwar@thenational.ae
