We were quite pleased one day to return to our hotel in Cairo and see a crowd of wedding guests waiting for a zaffah, the traditional wedding procession where dancers and musicians lead the bride and groom into the reception hall with dancers and musicians. I’ve performed in zaffahs in Canada so the prospect of seeing one in Egypt was quite thrilling.

The zaffa started at the ground floor of the hotel. No less than 27 musicians in cream pants and rich brocade vests flanked the gilt-edged stairs that brought us to the reception on the second floor. A mizmar player dressed in the traditional galabaya, accentuated the music with his horn-like instrument’s distinctive pitch.

There were even 4 bag-pipers! I was surprised because I erroneously thought of bag-pipes as the pure tradition of Scotland. They, in fact, originated in Egypt, around 800 B.C.E. Playing them was a cultural tradition which the Romans later spread to Europe and which the Scottish have preserved.

This was not the only zafah we were to witness. We were fortunate to have an even more personal experience with Khariyya Mazin.

The last of the original family of ghawazee-gyspy dancers, she joined us in Luxor on our Nile Boat Cruise to give a class on ghawazee dancing. Dancers in Egypt do not travel lightly - she came with eight musicians who played as she taught. Khariyya is actually in her sixties, but her movement and her face do not belie this. (Oriental dance really does help to preserve one’s health and youth-fulness!) After the class, we had a zaffeh for two of our own.