Kodak Agfa Presents : El-Sayeda Zeinab Ramadan Market in the morning in video and photos “Part-2”

And we are back because we are not done yet with El-Sayeda Zeinab Ramadan Market.

First of all , here is a short video I made at the market with my voice narrating in Arabic. “I think I got a flu”

Be sure to turn the captions in order to read the English subtitles.

Again, the recent price increase did not stop the people that much to buy the lanterns. Ramadan lanterns are like our Christmas tree.

A woman checking a Ramadan market lanterns' stand 

But this year lanterns or Ramadan food supplies are not the only attraction, we got the Ramadan home decorations and supplies as Ramadan plushies and drums too!!

At Ramadan Market's biggest makeshift stand in El-Sayeda Zeinab 

It is a whole new section that I have witnessed to grow that it became a full industry itself competing with lanterns and Ramadan food supplies.

As I hinted in the previous post in the case of Khayamiya textile patterns that was given another chance in Ramadan, we got several industries revived and found new ways of marketing their products.

A woman checking Ramadan home accessories 

Aside from the usual Ramadan tablecloths, we got this year a whole new range of Ramadan glassware and trays for the for the first time in El-Sayeda Zeinab Market.

Ramadan cups and mugs were the new addition of Ramadan products this year 

I do not recall seeing them in the previous years.

This year I saw so-called Ramadan glasses, disposable and plastic cups, glass bottles and glass jars all covered in Khayamiya patterns as well as the some called Ramadan pop culture characters.

Ramadan stickers, cups , mugs and tissues boxes too 

Those boxes that look like old radios are actually tissue boxes.

There are also cool Ramadan trays.

Ramadan trays are here as well 

I will dare and say that I saw more women buying those household items than lanterns, hell I got for home couple of things too as their prices were encouraging.

Customers at Ramadan market in El-Sayeda Zeinab

I bought those Ramadan Khayamiya stricker rolls which you can use to cover anything with old and famous joyful Egyptian pattern.

Ramadan sticker rolls sold in the market

Their quality is very good too.

There are new collections of decorations items like that those eva foam stickers with Ramadan pop culture characters in Egypt like Boogy and Tamam.

Eva foam stickers sold in the market 

I have to say the relaxed copyrights laws in Egypt allow workshops and factories to use characters like Boogy and Tamam as well as Fatouta when they are all owned by the Egyptian State TV and their creators whether Mahmoud Rahmy or Samir Ghanem May Allah bless their souls for instance.

Ramadan bottles and drums at the market 

There are Bakkar drums in this year’s collection.

Ramadan accessories including stickers and Bakkar drums 

I found also more Boogy and Tamtam Ramadan plushies.

Boogy and Tamtam plushies 

Boogy looks so bad though.

Interestingly I found out that those Boogy, Tamtam and Uncle Fouad which is based on Fouad El-Mohandes’ character in Ramadan are made in China.

Tamtam plushies look much better than 3amo Fouad and poor Boogy

Also, Saudi MBC characters Fananees are now established Ramadan pop culture icons despite I believe they are more of Eastern elves than true Ramadan characters from our culture or society like Bakkar.

Fananees lamps sold at the market 

Ironically Fananees characters are now MBC’s first NFT collection!!

The last thing I expected to see in Ramadan market was this 

Most of this collection if not all of them are made of China and that’s Tamtam holding that presentation plate.

It is really refreshing to see there is something new in the market and to see that the suppliers are trying to meet the needs of the markets with new products with new designs using that Ramadan spirit and pop culture.

By the way I forget to tell you that Egypt actually exports lanterns to abroad too.

The land of endless lanterns 

With reaching self sufficiency, the makers of the lanterns are waiting to increase their production for exports especially in the current time.

Now what I care about really is that I want to see the Ramadan lantern as Egyptian heritage and industry is recognized as official Egyptian heritage as well as world heritage in the UNESCO.

The old Sufi and the lanterns 

From couple of years ago I read Egypt presented the Ramadan Lantern to the UNESCO but I do not know what happened in the file. 

This is our tour for this year and till we meet next year inshallah.

A child looking at a Ramadan stand in Bab El-Khalk 

Ramadan Kareem y'all.