
Find Ramadan Lanterns on Cairo's Streets with John Feeney
- Arts
- Photography
Reading time:1min
Photograph by John Feeney
In the March/April 1992 issue, writer and photographer John Feeney took AramcoWorld readers on a walk through the streets of Cairo during Ramadan. There, they were illuminated with the cover story and tradition of “Ramadan’s Lanterns.” Feeney, a longtime contributor with close to 100 credit lines in AramcoWorld, spent more than 30 years in Egypt, sharing stories and educating readers across the globe.
Ramadan, the ninth month of the Hijri lunar calendar, marks a time for fasting, blessings and prayers. Muslims give thanks to God during this holy month, and within Arab countries, one can find lanterns and other decorations adorning homes throughout. Merchants in larger cities even get in on the festivities, bedecking storefronts with these Ramadan lanterns, or fawanees as they’re called in Arabic.
“One week before Ramadan begins,” writes Feeney in his 1992 story, “part of Ahmad Maher Street, for most of the year a humble thoroughfare in the old medieval quarter of Cairo, is transformed. Usually home to tinsmiths, marble-cutters and makers of mousetraps, for one glorious month it becomes ’The Street of the Lanterns.’”
Discover more about this story and more from our FirstLook section.
You may also be interested in...
Reflections on Journeys
Arts
History
Part 2 of our series celebrating AramcoWorld’s 75th anniversary this year highlights “visual vagabonding”—the magazine’s expanded use of vibrant images over the decades to fulfill the mission of cultural connection.Joumana El Zein Khoury’s Wider Lens
Arts
Photography “speaks directly to your emotions,” says Joumana El Zein Khoury, executive director of World Press Photo, which holds the world’s leading contest for news and documentary photography. Since she joined in 2021, she has organized six new global partnerships to “be our guides” and diversify the images and themes that earn annual awards for top visual storytelling. And she isn’t a photographer.FirstLook: The Beauty of the Streets
Arts
This photo series began unexpectedly when I found that photographing people behind windows and maintaining a distance made me, and the people I photographed, feel more comfortable. I purposefully frame myself in the reflection of the window to see into the space I’m photographing. I feel every window tells a different story.