Moulid of Abu Haggagg, Parade on Last Day.

Digi camera packed up, so I had to get the card downloaded onto a disc and then load the pics onto the laptop, what a carry-on! I knew I shouldn't have changed the Brownie 127!!!!!!
Anyway, stacks of photo's just to give you a taste of what it was like, but you have to imagine a deafening cacaphony all the time as well.
People come from far and wide to celebrate, with the Muslim population of Luxor, the Sheik (and saint) Abu Haggagg. The streets are crowded with onlookers, climbimg to every ledge or wall top to get a better view of what's coming!

On all the pictures, click once to enlarge, and again to magnify.



Once there's no room left for anyone to stand, then you know that the procession won't be long in coming. First of all there are the daft lads with their camels and horses. Shoving each other out of the way, and making the horses rear up, they don't seem to mind using their whips!




Interspersed between each group are gangs of youths, with fighting sticks or swords or knives. Thank heaven they aren't filled with drink!



The next group to appear are the Holy Men of Luxor, this group used to be a LOT bigger than today's showing, lol.



The Holy Men are followed by the camels with tents mounted on their backs. These represent the seven major Mosques of Luxor. On some of them they have a woman inside the tent, as I noticed at least two with female legs sticking out the bottom!




After the Mosques come the Trades of Luxor, represented on different floats hauled along by poor little donkeys or half starved horses, but always helped along by plenty of willing hands as well. The pictures are of the Felucca Men and the Fruiterers. The Bakers are always somewhere to be seen, covered in flour usually, but I didn't catch them here.




As well as the stick and sword men gathering between the floats, we also have the entertainers and fools. Here we have a right clever-clogs standing up on his "Hijabi" camel, also the man with the twitching false moustache who gave everyone a laugh!







The poor old soul playing the kettle drums really deserved that drink!

There were some floats and banners which I didn't know what they were, with an election coming up one or two were definitely election posters. I don't know what this one was, but the man wanted me to photograph it anyway. It did accidently produce a good profile picture of our good friend Mr. Ramadan, the local (spitting, remember?) electrician.