Cairo’s Ramadan street feasts return after coronavirus suspension

Muslims gather along a street-long table for break their Ramadan fast together in a mass "iftar" meal on the 15th day of the Muslim holy month, in the Matariya suburb in the northeast of Egypt's capital Cairo on April 16, 2022. (AFP)

Volunteers prepare to serve a mass fast-breaking "iftar" meal on the 15th day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in the Matariya suburb in the northeast of Egypt's capital Cairo on April 16, 2022. (AFP)

Volunteers grill skewers of meat for a mass fast-breaking "iftar" meal on the 15th day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in the Matariya suburb in the northeast of Egypt's capital Cairo on April 16, 2022. (AFP)

CAIRO: Communal meals in which hundreds of people pack around long tables to break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan have returned to Egypt's streets after being widely suspended for the past two years due to COVID-19 restrictions.
In the working-class Cairo neighbourhood of Matariya, residents sat back-to-back along two tables running down a narrow street festooned with balloons, bunting and banners as they enjoyed a meal of barbecued meat, rice and pickles.
Evening street meals are organised by charities for the poor, while others, like the one in Matariya, are run by local communities which pool food donations.
"The Ramadan spirit is back," said Haitham Adel, an organiser of the Matariya meal. "People are back to eating together without being worried."
Ahmed al-Bardisi, the organiser of a daily charity meal in Giza, across the Nile from central Cairo, said job losses during the coronavirus pandemic had limited food donations.
Though many Egyptians are struggling with accelerating inflation, he said such donations had recovered this year.
Egypt has been hit by successive waves of COVID-19 infections and imposed a nighttime curfew that coincided with Ramadan in 2020. Most restrictions have now been lifted.