PM — Ghazl El Mahalla could be the next state firm to debut on the EGX + Raya closes BariQ sale to Intro Group.

Hump day is news dump day, ladies and gentlemen, as we are getting our fix of everything: from IPOs, privatization news, M&As, a great analyst profile, plus a whole lot of interesting things to do when the day is out. You don’t want to miss this.

HAPPENING NOW- But before we begin, the local press is abuzz with reports that Health Minister Hala Zayed has been rushed to the hospital after reportedly suffering from a heart attack. We’ll be closely monitoring the situation and give you an update in tomorrow’s EnterpriseAM.

THE BIG STORIES TODAY-

Privatization watch: Ghazl El Mahalla could be the next company lined up for a listing in the state privatization program with a possible debut on the bourse in the coming weeks. Shares are currently being marketed to institutional players ahead of a possible November listing, Masrawy reported this morning, citing the head of Prime Holding, which is quarterbacking the transaction.

Over on Planet M&A: Raya Holding announced (pdf) this morning that it has completed the sale of its recycling unit BariQ to Intro Group for EGP 571 mn. The sale has been a year in the making after Raya said in November that it was close to an agreement with a then-unknown buyer. The two sides put pens to paper in May in an agreement that at the time put the transaction value at EGP 490 mn.

In other M&A news: We finally have some details on that MNHD story we plugged in yesterday. Madinet Nasr Housing and Development (MNHD) will launch a takeover bid for real estate player Minka Development in a transaction the company expects to be worth EGP 200-220 mn. Baker Tilly Wahid Abdel Ghaffar is working on the fair value study, which should be finished before the end of November. Irrespective of the valuation, the acquisition appears a dead cert: MNHD on Sunday announced that the board has approved the bid, that Minka owner Abdallah Sallam will become its new CEO, and that the Sallam family will purchase a 5% stake in the company post-acquisition.

^^ We’ll have more on all of these stories in tomorrow’s EnterpriseAM.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• Egypt’s state of emergency will not be renewed for the first time since 2017 as the country has grown more secure and stable, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi announced yesterday.
• We sat down with IMF Middle East and Central Asia Director Jihad Azour to talk about local and regional growth forecasts and the impact of rising commodity prices, inflation and vaccine supply on the region.
• More Russian tourists are expected to flock to Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh during the first week of November, with tour operators reporting record demand for flight and hotel bookings.

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Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly discussed the development at Egypt’s ports with a delegation from French shipping firm CMA CGM, that included its head Rodolphe Saadé, at a meeting in Paris today. The PM said that the government is looking forward to future cooperation with CMA CGM, particularly at the Ain Sokhna Port, according to a cabinet statement. Last month, Alexandria Container and Cargo Handling Company signed a two-year contract with CMA CGM, under which the company will anchor its ships on the holding company’s berths. Madbouly is in Paris this week to sign an OECD cooperation agreement and drum up French investments.

HAPPENING THIS WEEK-

It’s interest rate week here: The Central Bank of Egypt will meet this Thursday to discuss interest rates. All 12 analysts polled by Enterprise see the central bank leaving rates on hold for another meeting, citing the need to maintain portfolio inflows and uncertainty over inflation.

Ditto the Eurozone: The European Central Bank will almost certainly keep rates steady at its meeting on Thursday, the Financial Times is declaring. That said, attention will be fixed on what ECB President Christine Lagarde has to say about the longer-term outlook on inflation. The ECB will likely stick to its “inflation is temporary, no rate hikes needed” line, though investors are betting that the European bank is underestimating rising prices and may be forced to up rates before 2023.

And then it’s the Fed’s turn: The US Federal Reserve will meet to review interest rates on 2-3 November. The Fed is widely expected to keep interest rates steady in order to start tapering its asset purchases this month, though inflationary pressures are causing unease among some officials over the timeline, the Wall Street Journal reports. One analyst we polled suggests that investors in Egyptian debt have already priced in a Fed taper. But the longer the US can put off a rate hike, the better, as lower US interest rates relieve pressure on EM treasuries and maintain the appeal of our carry trade.

THE BIG STORIES ABROAD-

Roads blocked + banks, shops shut down in Sudan as death toll rises to 10: Roads connecting Sudanese capital Khartoum and the country’s second-largest city, Omdurman, have been blocked off, while shops, banks, and ATM machines were all shut down in the second day of unrest after yesterday’s coup, Reuters reports. A total of 10 protestors have now been killed, according to BBC Arabic. Earlier today, military leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan dissolved committees that govern trade unions. The events come following the military’s declaration of a state of emergency and dissolution of the sovereign council and government.

The US announced the suspension of a USD 700 mn emergency aid package to Sudan intended to support the country’s democratic transition in response to the violence, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling Sudanese authorities to release prisoners and reinstate internet connections, stressing that the US “rejects” dissolving the transitional government.

Where has Hamdok been? At a slumber party with Burhan, apparently: Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok is being held at Burhan’s own home and could be released either today or tomorrow, Burhan said at a presser (watch, runtime: 33:49). Hamdok was apprehended yesterday after refusing to endorse the coup. Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mariam Al Mahdi had said earlier today that Hamdok and members of his cabinet’s whereabouts were still unknown and that she has notified foreign ministers of Arab, African, and western countries.

More interventions coming? In an op-ed for Bloomberg, Bobby Ghosh called on US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to differentiate themselves from their predecessors by making it clear to the Sudanese military that violence against demonstrators would not be tolerated, stressing that time is of the essence in the days following a military takeover. Ghosh also called on Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia to exert their influence to restore the country’s transitional government.

Also getting a lot of coverage internationally:

• Facebook’s perma-PR crisis continues: The international news media are continuing to dish the dirt on the inner workings of the social media giant after receiving thousands of leaked documents known as the Facebook Papers (AP | NYT | Washington Post | FT | Bloomberg | WSJ ).
• Biden looks to b’naires to fund USD 1.75 tn spending bill: US President Joe Biden is hoping to get Congress to sign off on a massive social services and climate spending this week — but his plan to fund it with a groundbreaking b’naire tax is already getting pushback from some very powerful (read: wealthy) individuals (AP | Reuters | NYT | Bloomberg).

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FOR TOMORROW-

The two-day Intelligent Cities Exhibition & Conference takes place tomorrow and Thursday at the Intercontinental Cairo Citystars.

Grassroots community leaders aged 25-38 have until tomorrow to apply for the US State Department’s Community Solutions Program. Applications can be submitted here.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

It’s almost the end of October. Here are dates for some key news triggers next month:

• PMI: November’s purchasing managers’ indexes for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE will land on Wednesday, November 3.
• Foreign reserves: October’s foreign reserves figures will be out sometime during the first week of November.
• Inflation: Inflation figures for October will be released on Wednesday, 10 November.

The Middle East Angel Investment Network’s Angel’s Oasis retreat runs on Thursday and Friday in El Gouna, with separate pricing for in-person and virtual attendance.

Women entrepreneurs have until 6 November to apply to a new accelerator program launched by NGO Nahdet El Mahrousa offering up to EGP 200k in grants, mentorship, and other business support. Founders and social enterprise leaders working in ICT, creative industries, or on projects that support gender equality are eligible to apply. The program, Rabeha, was launched in partnership with UN Women Egypt, the Egyptian National Council for Women, Global Affairs Canada, and other partners. You can apply here.

We’re looking forward to reading Justo a Tiempo, a memoir penned by our friend ​​Maria Laura Sanchez Puerta (Morning Routine) about her family’s battle against cancer. Sanchez Puerta, who is the World Bank’s human development program leader in Egypt, is launching her memoir on Sunday, 7 November at Osana in Maadi. Argentinian Ambassador Eduardo Varela and Cairo University Professor Rasha Abboudy will also be speaking at the event.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- The mercury has gone back up to the 30s. Expect a daytime high of 31°C tomorrow and a nighttime low of 19°C, according to our favorite weather app.

Darth Perez strikes back: The Super League is going after Fifa and Uefa for their “monopoly” on football. Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus are refusing to let their botched ambitions for a pan-European Super League die, and have launched legal proceedings against Fifa and Uefa that could “fundamentally reorganize” how the sport is run, the Financial Times reports in an exclusive, citing court filings. The clubs — along with nine other European teams — attempted to form the breakaway league earlier this year to rival the Uefa Champions League, only to have the plans seemingly fall apart within days following universal condemnation by fans, teams, and pundits alike.

What’s their argument? The three clubs are alleging that Fifa and Uefa’s control over football is tantamount to a monopoly, which prevents new competitions from being set up to rival the officially-recognized tournaments. They also claim that Uefa should not be able to both make returns from its international tournaments and act as the sport’s regulator. The case is heading to the European Court of Justice, which will now judge whether football’s governing bodies have abused their market power in contravention of European law.

Clubs vs. countries: Sixteen European countries have said they will weigh in against the rebel clubs to defend Uefa in the lawsuit and protect the current model of the game. The European Commission has also said it will intervene in the case.

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The COP26 summit hasn’t even begun and the probability of its success is already on shaky ground. With neither China nor Russia’s leaders — the world’s two biggest giant greenhouse gas emitters — attending, conference host UK PM Boris Johnson said the summit’s chances for success are “touch and go” and that negotiations will be “very, very tough” (watch, runtime: 1:02). While the US and India (two other major emitters) are expected to attend, several other voices will not be represented at the annual summit, including a third of the Pacific islands. The increased costs of attending the summit this year, along with covid-19 travel restrictions and other pandemic woes, are the main reasons behind the receding RSVP list.

Why are the stakes for this year’s iteration of the summit so high? Deemed “arguably the most important COP since 2015” by former climate chief Christiana Figueres, the COP26 has leaders, activists and economists the world over holding their breath largely due to the looming urgency of realizing the goals of the Paris Agreement in 2015, the most ambitious of which is limiting global warming to below 2°C, a figure that strays considerably far from projections based on current pledges, which indicate a number closer to 2.7°C. Rich countries have also been expected to empty their pockets of USD 100 bn annually in support of climate actions in developing nations, a matter around which they should announce plans during the summit. Closing the emissions gap and reaching a net zero pathway are among other time-sensitive issues to be discussed at the summit.

So what — or rather, who — will determine if the summit will be a success? UN Secretary General Antonio Gueterres places a bulk of the responsibility squarely on finance ministers’ shoulders, calling on them to urgently consider net zero goals, low-carbon economic recovery, and inclusion in their decisions for the coming weeks. Economists Jeffrey Sachs and Nicholas Stern also said tackling climate change requires rethinking economic growth in a framework that prioritizes “broader common goods” over consumption of the rich, and a more “resource-efficient, productive and healthier” future. Both maintain that taking actions towards fighting climate change, like reallocating investments to green technologies like solar and wind, or implementing carbon pricing and regulation, would not be deterrents to economic growth.

SOME GOOD NEWS- The pace of divestment from fossil fuels is picking up: Some 1,500 institutions with USD 39.2 tn of assets under management announced this year they’re planning to sell off their fossil fuel holdings, up from USD 52 bn across 181 institutions in 2014, according to a report from DivestInvest picked up by Bloomberg. Harvard University, Ford Foundation, the state of Maine, and Canada’s Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Quebec are all among those that made divestment pledges, even as energy stocks surge on the back of the energy crisis, leaving climate-conscious investors behind. DivestInvest is a network that works to influence investors to divest from fossil fuels and invest in climate solutions to support the transition to the zero-carbon economy.

Investors are also reporting positive financial outcomes from the move away from fossil fuel investments, with a recent report by BlackRock Inc. finding that investors reported “neutral to positive results” from divestment. The DivestInvest report indicates much of the same, saying that investors “cite the financial reality that climate change will make fossil fuels obsolete and a renewable energy future inevitable.”

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-

(all times CLT)

Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan mixes true crime and psychology: The serial [redacted] assaulter was arrested in Ohio in 1977 and upon investigation was diagnosed with having multiple personality disorder. At a time when the condition was still misunderstood by the wider population, the case sparked a major legal debate about whether a defendant can use multiple personalities to plead insanity. The judge ended up ruling in his favor and sentencing him to more than 10 years in mental hospitals rather than prison, making Milligan the first person to be acquitted of a serious crime because of the illness.

⚽ Gameweek 1 of the Egyptian Premier League continues today: Reigning champions Zamalek get their campaign underway tonight at 8pm when they face Enppi. El Gouna play Ceramica Cleopatra at 5.30pm, while Arab Contractors and Eastern Company are currently mid-way through the first clash of the day.

Over in the UK- The League Cup round of 16 kicks off tonight: Chelsea will play against Southampton, Arsenal take on Leeds, and QPR meet Sunderland, all of which start at 8:45pm.

In La Liga: Alaves face Elche at 7pm, Espanyol play Athletic Bilbao at 9pm, and Villarreal meet Cadiz at 9:30pm.

As for Serie A: Milan — which are tied at the top of the table with Napoli having only dropped two points so far this season — will face Turin at 8:45pm. Meanwhile at 6:30pm, Spezia will play against Genoa, and Venice play Salernitana, which are at the bottom of the table.

????EAT THIS TONIGHT-

Another Italian place everyone is raving about: Spaghi Spaghetteria in Al Guezira Plaza in Sheikh Zayed serves all the quintessential Italian dishes we know and love as well as a few twists. They certainly don’t skimp on the cheese, with their pizza and pasta dishes ensuring a satisfying cheese pull with every bite. Start off with their seafood soup, bruschetta, fried calamari, or fresh burrata. We’re more pasta people and we loved their lasagna, carbonara, and gnocchi pesta, but their pizza pot pie almost made us switch sides. For dessert, they’ve added a honeycomb molten cake to their menu that is definitely worth a try.

???? OUT AND ABOUT-

(all times CLT)

Head to Cairo Jazz Club 610’s comedy night with Shadi Alfons & Khalid Mansour today at 9pm. The duo are famous for their hilarious segments on the Egyptian version of Saturday Night Live.

It’s Arctic Monkeys tribute night at The Room New Cairo, with the performing band, The Mangabeys, making sure to note that they’ll be playing ‘Do I Wanna Know?’. The set starts at 9pm.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

With Halloween just around the corner, what better time to revisit “the definitive haunted house story”: The Haunting of Hill House? You may know it as the ten-part 2018 Netflix series that gave us all the chills (or that horrible adaptation from the 1990s). But for horror aficionados, The Haunting of Hill House stands as one of the great ghost stories of all time, praised by Stephen King for bringing us “the finest character to come out of the new American gothic tradition.” He’s talking about Eleanor Vance, one of the assistants brought to investigate a supposedly haunted house in Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel. Eleanor finds herself strangely captivated by Hill House and its dark, changeable nature. As the house itself plays on her senses, all her loneliness and feelings of dread emerge as things that go bump in the night — or perhaps just terrifying manifestations of her own subconscious. An eerie reminder to us all that “houses aren’t haunted — people are. ”

OUR ANALYST OF THE WEEK- Sherif El Etr, equity analyst at Prime Holding (LinkedIn).

My name is Sherif El Etr and I’m a sell-side equity analyst at Prime Holding. I’ve been in this role for around a year and half now and I cover consumers and NBFS. My previous experience was as an asset and liabilities management analyst at the National Bank of Egypt and before that I was working at a corporate. I knew that I wanted to be in the finance and investment field so the bank was my jumping-off point and I also decided to take the CFA. I passed level one and now I’m studying for level two.

The best part of my job is getting to know more about companies and the markets. The valuations are my favorite part and the reason I was excited about being in a finance-related job. It’s a lot of exposure and every detail about a company allows you to see the bigger picture about the market.

The worst part of my job is that you give recommendations, but you personally can’t take any action. You see value and potential growth, but you can’t move towards it or execute your own strategy. The investor has the final say in whether they’ll trust your judgement and you have to accept that.

Work from home was good for my productivity. For me it was a positive experience as I could focus better and of course there was the added benefit of no commute. But everything has a good and bad side and in this case the biggest con was that working hours were extended.

My theory of investment is inspired by Warren Buffett. I agree with his strategy of long-term investments that use fundamentals as their basis. When you invest, you become a loyal shareholder that is a believer in the value of the stock they’ve invested in. That’s why you need to be confident and well-informed about the investments you seek.

The most important factor I look at before recommending an investment is the firm’s ability for continuous growth and value creation. Companies need to have an edge to outpace peers and if the management feels like they’re reaching maturity in the business cycle, they need to make a new curve by introducing new products or services or innovating their existing offerings. That being said, there are a lot of factors to consider when assessing a company including financials, operations, business models, and more.

I think the EGX30 closing in the green this year is conditional on whether foreign investors come back to the market. It could remain in the green, but there are always fluctuations. However, these fluctuations are very minor compared to other countries where the main index went up or down significantly in the past year. The market is stable, but I think that foreign investors coming back to what they consider blue chip stocks could be a catalyst for the EGX30 to perform better, especially since the market has a lot of undervalued stocks with upside potential in terms of valuation.

I do think 2022 could be the year of Egypt. Globally, there are a lot of implications from the pandemic such as inflation and commodity prices, but Egypt has rode that wave steadily and even achieved positive GDP growth in 2020. With growth expected to accelerate in the coming years, I think that when things normalize around the world, Egypt will receive a boost that will allow it to outpace forecasts and other EMs. We’ll probably start seeing this in 2H2022.

If I had to cover another sector, I would go for real estate. It’s interesting and it has completely different financial and business models. At one point, I’d like to go into buy-side research, private equity, or venture capital. I’m attracted to the prospect of value creation and knowing the right time to exit an investment.

The last great thing I watched was Squid Game. I watched it before all the spoilers came out all over social media, so it really took me by surprise. I felt like it held a very important message: that you could believe that pursuing something will bring you happiness and comfort, but that’s not always the case. I also really loved the score.

The last great thing I read was Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. I like reading about finance and how people decide on investment strategies.

I mostly listen to podcasts and watch things on YouTube that have to do with the English Premier League. I’m a huge Arsenal fan “lel asaf” [laughs] and I keep up to date with everything about the club. The things I listen to are ESPN, Fabrizio Romano, Younes Talks Football, and AFTV. Other than that, I play a lot of Call of Duty: Warzone when I’m not studying for the CFA.

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The EGX30 rose 0.7% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.58 bn (3.6% above the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is up 3.8% YTD.

In the green: Fawry (+6.8%), Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals (+6.6%) and AMOC (+4.8%).

In the red: Madinet Nasr Housing (-9.0%), Gadwa Industrial Development (-6.4%) and Egypt Resorts Company (-6.4%).

Mid-October: The Egyptian Banking Institute, the Financial Services Institute, and I-Score will begin airing in mid-October the Digital Credit Scoring Webinar Series, a line-up of webinars on the banking sector and banking regulations.

23-28 October (Saturday-Thursday): A high-level delegation of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will visit Egypt to meet with government officials and travel to IFAD-supported projects in the country.

24-28 October (Sunday-Thursday): Cairo Water Week, Cairo, Egypt.

26 October (Tuesday): EIB seminar (pdf) on water project financing in Egypt. Nile Ritz Carlton, Cairo.

27-28 October (Wednesday-Thursday): Intelligent Cities Exhibition & Conference, Royal Maxim Palace Kempinski, Cairo, Egypt.

27 October (Wednesday): World Cloud Show.

28 October (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

28 October (Thursday): Second tranche of overdue subsidy payouts will be handed to eligible exporters.

30 October – 4 November (Saturday-Thursday): The first edition of Race The Legends, Egypt.

30-31 October (Saturday-Sunday): G20 Leaders’ Summit, Rome, Italy.

31 October (Saturday): World Cities Day, Luxor, Egypt.

November: The French-Egyptian Business Forum is set to take place in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

November: Egypt will host another round of talks to reach a potential Egyptian-Eurasian trade agreement, which can significantly contribute to increasing the volume of Egyptian exports to the Russia-led bloc that includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

1-3 November (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Energy exhibition on power and renewable energy, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

1-12 November (Monday-Friday): 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Glasgow, United Kingdom.

2-3 November (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

6 November (Saturday): Deadline to apply to Nahdet El Mahrousa’s Rabeha, a women entrepreneurship accelerator program.

7-10 November (Sunday-Wednesday): Cairo ICT 2021, Egypt International Exhibition Center, New Cairo.

8 November (Monday): Egypt CSR Forum, International Citystars, Cairo.

15-21 November (Monday-Sunday): Intra-African Trade Fair 2021, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

16-17 November (Tuesday-Wednesday): Africa fintech summit, Cairo.

18-19 November (Thursday-Friday) British royal family members Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall visit Cairo.

25-27 November (Thursday-Saturday): RiseUp Summit, Cairo, Egypt.

26 November-5 December (Friday-Sunday): The 43rd Cairo International Film Festival.

29 November-2 December (Monday-Thursday): Egypt Defense Expo, Egypt International Exhibition Centre.

7-8 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): North Africa Trade Finance Summit.

8-10 December (Wednesday-Thursday): Global Forum for Higher Education and Scientific Research (GFHS), Cairo, Egypt.

12-14 December (Sunday-Tuesday): Food Africa Cairo trade exhibition, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

13-17 December: United Nations Convention against Corruption, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

14-19 December (Tuesday-Sunday): The Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater.

14-15 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

15 December (Wednesday): Deadline for joint stock companies and investment companies in Cairo to join e-invoicing platform.

16 December (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

1Q2022: Launch of the Egyptian Commodities Exchange.

7 January 2022 (Friday): Coptic Christmas.

27 January 2022 (Tuesday): National holiday in observance of 25 January revolution anniversary / Police Day.

14-16 February 2022 (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Petroleum Show, Egypt International Exhibition Center, New Cairo, Egypt.

19 February 2022 (Saturday): Public universities begin the second term of the 2021-2022 academic year.

1H2022: The World Economic Forum annual meeting, location TBD.

2 April 2022 (Saturday): First day of Ramadan (TBC).

22-24 April 2022 (Friday-Sunday): World Bank-IMF spring meeting, Washington D.C.

24 April 2022 (Sunday): Coptic Easter Sunday (holiday for Coptic Christians).

25 April 2022 (Monday): Sham El Nessim.

25 April 2022 (Monday): Sinai Liberation Day.

May 2022: Investment in Logistics Conference, Cairo, Egypt.

2 May 2022 (Monday): Eid El Fitr (TBC).

16 June 2022 (Thursday): End of 2021-2022 academic year for public schools.

27 June-3 July 2022 (Monday-Sunday): World University Squash Championships, New Giza.

30 June 2022 (Thursday): June 30 Revolution Day, national holiday.

2H2022: IEF-IGU Ministerial Gas Forum, Egypt. Date + location TBA.

8 July (Friday): Arafat Day.

9-13 July (Saturday-Wednesday): Eid Al Adha, national holiday.

30 July (Saturday): Islamic New Year.

6 October (Thursday): Armed Forces Day, national holiday.

8 October (Saturday): Prophet Muhammad’s birthday.

18-20 October 2022 (Tuesday-Thursday): Mediterranean Offshore Conference, Alexandria, Egypt.

**Note to readers: Some national holidays may appear twice above. Since 2020, Egypt has observed most mid-week holidays on Thursdays regardless of the day on which they fall and may also move those days to Sundays. We distinguish below between the actual holiday and its observance.