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Egyptian Artists Prepare for Ramadan with Lanterns, Small Motifs

People shop from a stall selling Ramadan lanterns along a main street in the northern suburb of Shubra of Egypt's capital Cairo at the start of the Ramadan. [Khaled Desouki/AFP]
People shop from a stall selling Ramadan lanterns along a main street in the northern suburb of Shubra of Egypt's capital Cairo at the start of the Ramadan. [Khaled Desouki/AFP]
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Egyptian Artists Prepare for Ramadan with Lanterns, Small Motifs

People shop from a stall selling Ramadan lanterns along a main street in the northern suburb of Shubra of Egypt's capital Cairo at the start of the Ramadan. [Khaled Desouki/AFP]
People shop from a stall selling Ramadan lanterns along a main street in the northern suburb of Shubra of Egypt's capital Cairo at the start of the Ramadan. [Khaled Desouki/AFP]

Egyptian artists are preparing for Ramadan by making lanterns and small, funny motifs depicting famous figures that locals are used to like “Al-Mesaharati”, “Bougi”, “Tamtam”, and “Bakkar”.

Handmade artisanal works still have a great significance in Egypt, and the modern machine-made products didn’t manage to replace them, which encourage local artists to keep making creative works that recall their folklore and historic symbols to celebrate the holy month.

“We are racing against time to provide a local product that rivals the imported one with better manual craftmanship, special design, and strong fabrics,” Ghada Ibrahim said from inside a workshop of puppets and small motifs.

“Ramadan occupies me all the year. Once it ends, I start thinking of my new works and prepare them alongside the works of other occasions. The holy month reminds us of our childhood, so we make small motifs that we had beautiful memories with. We can’t forget them,” she told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Ghada makes small motifs depicting famous figures from the Egyptian television and radio including Fouad el-Mohandes, Samir Ghanem, Sayed Mekawy, Nelly, and Sherihan, in addition to folkloric and historic characters such as Scheherazade and Shahryar, the mermaid, Bougy and Tamtam, and Bakkar, as well as many Ramadan-inspired figures like the local desert vendors.

This year, Ghada made small motifs depicting the mesaharati, in addition to Ramadan-inspired puppets, lanterns, and versatile storage boxes. She uses various materials in her works including colored foam, fabrics, and wigs.

The Khiyamia neighborhood in the heart of Cairo embraces the largest market of Ramadan tents. “I make lanterns in different sizes, and wooden artifacts such as crescents and Ramadan-related figures that Egyptians love. These works need between two days and two weeks based on the size and decoration. The process consists of several steps: cutting, sculpting, assembling, polishing, and the final touches,” Sayed Zaki, maker of small wooden statues, told Asharq Al-Awsat.

In the prestigious neighborhood of Sayyidah Zaynab, Hani Husni sells Ramadan decorations made of paper, fabrics, and foam.

“Despite the economic crisis, Egyptians didn’t skip the decorations of Ramadan. The handmade artisanal works are the most demanded for the Ramadan ambiance,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

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Soviet-era Spacecraft Plunges to Earth after 53 Years Stuck in Orbit

FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)
FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)
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Soviet-era Spacecraft Plunges to Earth after 53 Years Stuck in Orbit

FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)
FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)

A Soviet-era spacecraft plunged to Earth on Saturday, more than a half-century after its failed launch to Venus.
The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking confirmed its uncontrolled reentry, based on analysis and no-shows of the spacecraft on subsequent orbits. The European Space Agency’s space debris office also indicated that the spacecraft had reentered after it failed to appear over a German radar station.
It was not immediately known where the spacecraft came in or how much, if any, of the half-ton spacecraft survived the fiery descent from orbit. Experts said ahead of time that some if not all of it might come crashing down, given it was built to withstand a landing on Venus, the solar system’s hottest planet.
The chances of anyone getting clobbered by spacecraft debris were exceedingly low, scientists said.
Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 was part of a series of missions bound for Venus. But this one never made it out of orbit around Earth, stranded there by a rocket malfunction.
Much of the spacecraft came tumbling back to Earth within a decade of the failed launch. No longer able to resist gravity’s tug as its orbit dwindled, the spherical lander — an estimated 3 feet (1 meter) across — was the last part of the spacecraft to come down. The lander was encased in titanium, according to experts, and weighed more than 1,000 pounds (495 kilograms).
After following the spacecraft’s downward spiral, scientists, military experts and others could not pinpoint in advance precisely when or where the spacecraft might come down. Solar activity added to the uncertainty as well as the spacecraft’s deteriorating condition after so long in space.
As of Saturday morning, the US Space Command had yet to confirm the spacecraft's demise as it collected and analyzed data from orbit.
The US Space Command routinely monitors dozens of reentries each month. What set Kosmos 482 apart — and earned it extra attention from government and private space trackers — was that it was more likely to survive reentry, according to officials.
It was also coming in uncontrolled, without any intervention by flight controllers who normally target the Pacific and other vast expanses of water for old satellites and other space debris.