Love in Limbo: Valentine’s Day Gift Sales Stuck in Neutral
Even though we are 24 hours away from Egyptian Valentine’s Day, which falls on November 4th every year, downtown stores have seen no demand or offer for Valentine’s Day gifts.
Al-Masri Al-Youm movement conducted a field tour in the center of the country to observe Valentine’s Day gift prices, shopping demand and available offers, as well as a stagnation in its buying and selling, as stores did not have the usual Valentine’s Day gifts and offers.
Ehab Mohammed Al-Masri, owner of a shop in downtown Cairo, told Al-Youm that the reason behind the demand to buy gifts on Valentine’s Day is not a lack of offers, but that Egyptians are simply used to celebrating Valentine’s Day. The month of February and buying gifts, emphasizing that many people do not know that tomorrow is the Egyptian Valentine’s Day.
As for the most expensive Valentine’s Day gifts in store, a small red teddy bear cost £195, the average price was £290, while a snow crystal was a record £485.
Shaima Al-Said confirmed that many people have lost their passion and carelessness in celebrating Valentine’s Day due to the pressure of life, especially in light of the high price. She said: “I was surprised that tomorrow was announced as a Valentine’s Day post on social networking sites, and I saw Finding that family needs are more important than buying gifts, explains the lack of celebration “in light of the current economic situation and high prices.”
Ain Shams University economics professor Dr. Yaman Al-Hamaki blamed the economic situation for the lack of demand for Valentine’s Day gifts: “People are looking for basic food needs, so how about looking for gifts?”
Al-Hamaqi Al-Masri added in Al-Youm’s exclusive statement that there is a heavy and unreasonable increase in prices and families have become insufficient to meet basic needs, so the demand for non-essential items, even clothes, has decreased.
48 years ago, Egypt began celebrating Valentine’s Day on November 4 each year, when the late writer Mustafa Amin proposed the idea, Egyptians celebrate Valentine’s Day on 4/11, which is separate from International Valentine’s Day or. “Valentine’s Day”, which falls on February 14 every year.
Egyptian Valentine’s Day Story
In 1974, particularly when the late journalist Mustafa Amin published “An Idea” in his then-famous column “Akhbar al-Youm”, he was struck by a scene he saw at a funeral of Sayyida Zeinab in central Cairo, with only three people. was walking, because the deceased was more than seventy years old, he loved no one and no one loved him, and this affected him, so Mustafa Amin wanted to spread love and peace among the members of the society.
Amin wrote in his column at the time, “We want to celebrate Valentine’s Day on November 4 for the first time: love of God, love of country, love of family, love of neighbor, love of friends and Valentine’s Day. All men will recover all our virtues and revive all our values, the day when valor was our characteristic and chivalry was our characteristic.