For the first time in years, Catholics in Egypt don’t have to work on Christmas, not because the government made it a national holiday, but because their Christmas happens to fall on the weekend, on Friday and Saturday.

For many ages, Egyptian Catholics have demanded that the western Christmas (the 25^th of December) be an official holiday and that no exams be put on this day so students could enjoy it.

However, their demands were never met, especially with their estimated small number of 300,000 citizens (no official census).