As the new year begins, Egypt’s Copts, the biggest Christian population in the Middle East, celebrate Orthodox Christmas across the Egyptian capital and against the backdrop of the country’s worst economic crisis in decades. Meanwhile, the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in the neighboring Gaza Strip continues to take a cross-border toll on the resilience of the human spirit. For VOA, Cairo photojournalist Hamada Elrasam has the story in pictures. Photo captions by Elle Kurancid.
For Egypt's Coptic Christians, Christmas Comes at a Time of Sacrifice
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On Christmas Eve according to the Julian calendar, hundreds of Coptic Christians attend a Mass with a sermon that calls on worshippers to find peace in poverty. Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 6, 2024. (Hamada Elrasam/VOA)
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Coptic women hear a Christmas Eve sermon following a year of record-high inflation and deepening cost-of-living and debt crises that the newly reelected general-turned-president Abdel Fattah El-Sissi presides over. Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 6, 2024.
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Christians and Muslims believe Jesus was born into persecution and displacement, fleeing to Egypt from Bethlehem, where Christmas festivities this year were canceled in mourning of the mounting death toll in war-ravaged Gaza. Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 6, 2024.
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The Christmas Eve meal of a family that relies on subsidies. Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 6, 2024. (Hamada Elrasam/VOA)