Every Day Is Special: July 23 – Revolution Day in Egypt

July 23 – Revolution Day in Egypt

Posted on July 23, 2014

I read that today is the largest secular public holiday in Egypt. It is the anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 – the revolution that led to the abdication of King Farouk.

Military parades and televised concerts are among the celebrations, according to multiple sources on the internet.

It may be that "Revolution Day" now refers
to January 25, commemorating the 2011
mass uprising.
This photo was taken onJan. 25, 2012.

However, I couldn't find word one about what Revolution Day has been like since Egypt's peaceful uprising in January, 2011, and the four days of mass revolt last July. The mass demonstrations removed two different presidents, Mubarak and Morsi, but so far, at least, they have not led to the hoped-for democratic transformation, but instead to more personal-power politics and military rule.

I imagine that today's Revolution Day - if it is acknowledged at all - is acknowledged with bitter thoughts from many Egyptians.

Did you know...?

There are many interesting things about Egypt, especially about the ancient civilization that flourished there thousands of years ago. Here are a few facts about modern Egypt:

It's official name is the Arab Republic of Egypt. It used to be called Kemet (Black Land), Deshret (Red Land), and Hwt-ka-Ptah (House of the Ka of the god Ptah). It was the Greeks who changed the latter to Aegyptus.

In addition to the official language of Arabic, many people speak French and / or English.

The longest river in the world, the Nile River, famously flows through Egypt and floods nearby lands every year, making the strip of land on either side of the river fertile. The rest of the country is dominated by the Sahara and Libyan Deserts.

Cairo, Egypt's capital, had the first subway system in Africa. (Actually, now that Algiers opened its metro system in 2011, there are only two subway systems in all of Africa.)

Almost a third of Africa's bloggers are Egyptians.

And I can't help myself – I have to include a little bit of ancient stuff:

The Sahara Desert, which today gets an average of less than one inch of precipitation (rain and snow) PER YEAR, used to be a lush green grassland. Global climate change around 8,000 B.C.E. changed it from a savannah perfect for large grazing mammals to barren desert.