Western Festivals in Egypt between Cultural Imperialism and Commercial Imperialism: The Valentine’s Day as a Model

The research monitors the phenomenon of Egyptian celebrations of the Valentine’s Day in order to reveal the extent of the spread of this phenomenon, its manifestations, its causes, and the ways of celebrating it. It questions whether this phenomenon represents a cultural imperialism of Egypt, or a commercial imperialism, or both, and interprets this in relation to the theory of cultural globalization and the theory of cultural imperialism. The researcher relies on interviews, observation, participation, an opinion poll form, and a form that incorporates the places that celebrate the Valentine’s Day, and those that advertise the Valentine’s Day gifts and special offers, in addition to classifying them according to their main activity in order to determine the quantity of these advertisements being one of the manifestations of the celebration, and, at the same time, indicator of the commercial nature of the Valentine’s Day.
The researcher detects several aspects of the Valentine’s Day, including the decorations of malls and shops which manage various activities such as flowers, gifts, clothes, cosmetic products, and cafes. Moreover, she traces the interest of various mass media communication in this event (visual, audio, print, and electronic ones) and the number of visitors of gifts and flowers’ shops. Furthermore, the strolling of several young ladies and men in public parks and along the Nile Corniche, and the organization of special exhibition areas -bazaars- for the Valentine’s Day gifts have been tackled. In addition, the acts of throwing several concerts, the extent of the interaction of social media users in relation to the event, and the huge number of advertisements and offers offered by companies and stores on this occasion have been examined.