The Positive and Negative Impacts of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) on the Egyptian Intangible Cultural Heritage Social Practices, Religious Rituals and Cultural Expressions.

Abstract

The outbreak of the ongoing novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has created a global health crisis that profoundly altered the perception of people’s everyday life practices. This pandemic has contributed to substantial changes in inherited cultures across the world. In Egypt, the widespread of COVID-19 has not only a critical effect on public health but also all aspects of daily life. In addition to its lethal impacts on human life, the virus has the potential to significantly affecting the Egyptian intangible cultural heritage. This paper was written amidst the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus in Egypt, around the second week following the announcement of the confirmed infected cases in February 2020. It focuses on the main positive and negative impacts, resulted from the dispersal of the virus, on the Egyptian intangible cultural heritage practices. It also aims at illustrating the different aspects of changes that have affected the Egyptian intangible cultural heritage (living heritage), how these unprecedented changes have impacted the Egyptians’ social practices, religious and spiritual rituals, festive events and cultural expressions, and how the Egyptians have reacted in response to it. Moreover, it highlights the most recent adopted exceptional governmental measures, monumental attempts and impressive efforts to combat the widespread of the virus.