Cairo Journal - A Taste of Spring That Reeks of Tradition (and More) - NYTimes.com Bryan Denton for The New York Times Fishmongers at the Shahin shop in Cairo wrapped the Egytian holiday delicacy known as feseekh - a heavily salted, stinky, aged mullet - for customers. CAIRO - Every year, Egyptians mark the arrival of spring by flocking to the rare patches of green in this sprawling, crowded megalopolis to celebrate a holiday believed to be passed down from the pharaohs. Sham el-Nessim, the holiday's Arabic name, means literally "smelling the breeze." That's not always advisable in the case of the holiday's trademark dish: a heavily salted, aged fish called feseekh that even admirers acknowledge smells more like garbage than food. "It's terrible!" said Muhammad Shaaban, 54, who lounged with his extended family under a tree in a Cairo park during the holiday on Monday. But he still eats the fish. "It's an Egyptian tradition that's been with us for 7,000 years," he said. We're used to it. These are turbulent times for Egypt as its people deal with recurrent street violence, political polarization and increasing economic distress. Recent news reflects the gloom. The government has so far failed to reach a loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund that could help prop up the economy, and disagreements rage between the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's strongest political power, and its opponents over the direction of the country. A discussion about whether Muslims were permitted to wish their Christian neighbors a happy holiday on the Coptic Christian Easter this past Sunday was taken by some as an indication of how much society has frayed since the revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak more than two years ago. But those worries were largely set aside on Monday as Egyptians of all classes and religions held picnics, took boat rides on the Nile and celebrated a holiday whose roots most believe date back to this land's ancient inhabitants. They also stood by their fish. "Feseekh is Egyptian, and the ancients taught us how to make it," said Maher Dahab, a clothing merchant standing in line at a fish shop downtown. They built the pyramids, and they made feseekh. Both the holiday and its stinky meal have proved resistant to attack, highlighting the long history that gives Egyptians one of the strongest senses of national identity in the Arab world. While most Arab countries were created by colonial powers drawing arbitrary lines on maps, Egypt has been Egypt for millenniums. Pride in that inheritance is something most Egyptians share, even when they disagree on much else. Despite declarations from a few conservative television preachers branding Sham el-Nessim a pagan holiday that Muslims are forbidden to celebrate, the country's most prominent Islamist parties do not oppose it. "It's an Egyptian tradition that we've all become accustomed to," said Gehad el-Haddad, a senior official with the Muslim Brotherhood, whose political party dominates the Parliament. Muhammad Emara, a member of the executive council of the ultraconservative Nour Party, said, "We don't get involved in Egyptian traditions." Nor have government warnings about the dangers of eating old, raw fish dried up demand. Two days before the holiday, the Egyptian Health Ministry released statistics for food poisoning and deaths from bad feseekh in recent years: 49 poisoned and 9 dead in 2007; 26 poisoned and 4 dead in 2008; and more than a dozen poisoned and 2 dead in both 2009 and 2010. That's better than 1991, when bad fish poisoned 90 people and killed 18. While the ministry reported no confirmed cases of feseekh poisoning in the last two years, it warned Egyptians not to eat it, deeming it a health risk that can cause "complete paralysis or death." One of Cairo's most storied feseekh sellers, Abdel-Nabi Shahin, shrugged when asked about the warnings. "There are cheaters who give us a bad image," he said, adding that the trick is clean preparation. Some have dirty fingernails or don't wash their hands before they work with the fish. The job, he said, requires "cleanliness and vigilance." Mr. Shahin, 58, is the third-generation owner of the family business, which now has two stores that draw customers from far away seeking fish they can trust. The process has changed little over the years, Mr. Shahin said. He starts with fresh mullet caught in the Mediterranean, which is washed but left intact, guts and all. It is packed in salt in wood barrels and left to sit for 45 days. After that, it is good to eat for six months, Mr. Shahin said. A kilogram of Shahin's feseekh (about 2.2 pounds) goes for about $13, nearly twice what it cost last year because of a fish shortage, he said.