Eid el Ghutas: Celebrated on 19 January, it supposedly marks the end of the Christmas season begun on the 7th of the same month, and commemorates the baptism of Christ. The word “ghutas” meaning total immersion, usually in water, also describes the act of baptism of Coptic babies whereby the body is totally immersed in the holy font. Food served during this feast is invariably the same in most homes, though the origin of the traditional meal remains contested, but some interesting explanations challenge the imagination. The main dish is taro stew served with rice, followed by tangerines and knuckles of sugar cane to chew on, in lieu of dessert.

Taro leaves, whose scientific name is Madumbes, but more relevantly to our present purpose, also called Colocasia Esculenta, and in Arabic Colcas, are said to derive their name from Mount Golgotha, aka Calvary. A name attributed to the mount for a variety of reasons, none especially definitive, but the etymology of the word remains the same: “the place for skulls”, since the skull of Adam according to one version is buried there, and to another because the place looks like one. Further on, through the Aramaic Gulgalta, the word mutated into what we now know as colocasia, and ol'as. Ol’as, in Arabic, also rhymes with rass, meaning head, in reference to the skulls with which the word is connected (it is also said that if you don’t eat ol’as on ghutas, you will wake up without a rass. And yet others will say you will wake up without knickers, which in Arabic also rhymes with rass).

Taro (Colcas)

1 kg taro, peeled and cubed
Chicken or beef broth
4 garlic cloves, mashed
2 tbsp butter
1 bunch green coriander, chopped
1 bunch swiss chard, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

• Wash taro well in running tap water.
• Place taro in a pot and cover with broth. Bring to the boil then lower heat and simmer until tender.
• In a skillet, sauté garlic until golden then add coriander and swiss chard and sauté for 2 more minutes.
• Pour onto taro, bring to the boil then remove from hea

This said, the reason ol'as and sugar cane are eaten on the occasion of an immersion, or the celebration of the baptism of Christ differs in relation to the skepticism of each account. According to some, the head of the taro resembles a bare skull and hence the justification of celebrating what may have taken place on Mount Golgotha, and the crucifixion of Christ. With the sugar cane left unaccounted for, we get another justification: mainly that Colocasia (in which case, the name and shape are immaterial) is a root vegetable that grows in moist sites and wetland found next to Golgotha; a water retentive plant tolerant of waterlogging, a characteristic it shares with another crop in particular: the sugar cane.

Little more need be said to explain the cult of water immersion and the association with those two highly moisture oriented plants. A different account, however, more secular and skeptical, told by no less practicing Copts is that given the date of the feast and the time of month, taro being a very nutritive plant and sugar cane with its high glycemic index would provide an exemplary diet of high calories to meet the cold. The pragmatic view would also hold that tangerines are the fruit of the season, and would explain away a whole traditional meal in the stark light of the market place.

Folklore also has it that one of the Alexandrian “nawwa's” ( storms) occurs around that time of year to wash, or possibly irrigate the colocasia even more, since it bears the name “ghutas” following the same theme. As for the tangerines, no more in season than say, oranges and bananas, are probably chosen because their peel lends itself easily to making little incisions, and so children can slit them at the top making them into tiny basket shapes where a candle will be placed and lit. That the basket is meant to evoke the infant Jesus, is only speculation, but remains a possibility to ponder, and a tradition to add color to a feast with which not too many non Copts are as familiar as with the Coptic Christmas, now a national holiday, though with a distinctly less traditional meal.