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The date of celebrating the festival is decided by the Coptic calendar. The festival celebrates the beginning of the harvesting season. Shemu stands for revival of life and onset of the harvesting season. The festival is marked by a great feast in which certain things have to be consumed. The offerings during the feast also hold great significance.

It is believed that ancient Egyptians used to offer gifts such as lettuce, onions and salted fish called feseekh. The fish may not smell too good but the offering of this fish represents fertility and welfare of people in general. Onions, on the other hand, are believed to keep the evil powers away. This follows from a legend in which the son of a Pharoah got cured of a severe illness after a ripe onion was kept on his bed under the head for some duration. The fumes inhaled by the son drove away the evils and he regained good health.

In modern times Sham el Nessim is a celebrated mainly for beginning of the spring season and people plan to take time off work and spend a vacation in the spring breeze. . Egyptians continue to eat the same three traditional food items just as ancient Egyptians. The fish nowadays is usually anchovies, sardines or mackerel. Some also include boiled eggs, scallions, lettuce and green onions.

Those people that take A HREF="http://book.flythomascook.com/cheap-flights/to-Sharm-El-Sheikh-Egypt/">flights to sharm El sheikh Egypt, come to realise that the festival is actually considered to be incomplete without the three food items. Sham el Nessim, literally means sniff the breeze. The festival is celebrated by both Christians and Muslims. People in Egypt involve themselves in all kinds of outdoor activities to literally sniff the breeze. They visit the zoo or find a picnic spot close to the Nile to enjoy the great weather.

The festival gained momentum only after Egypt was Christianized. In ancient Egypt the feast was actually announced at the foot of the Great Pyramid at a night prior to the exact day of the festival. The ancient Egyptians believed it to be the day of creation as vernal equinox coincided with the day of the festival.