About Us

What is Mahragan AlKeraza?

Mahragan AlKeraza is a worldwide event organized by Coptic Orthodox Churches. It is a spiritual growth fellowship opportunity for Coptic youth to come together and compete in spiritual studies, Coptic language, hymns, sports, choir, and drama. Spiritual Studies emphasize the Holy Bible and the history, doctrine, and rites of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Each year’s topics reflect the competition’s theme, and this year’s theme is “The Lord is my Light and Salvation”

Purpose of the Mahragan

The purpose of the Mahragan is to:

• • Encourage the spirit of Community and unity among the Coptic Orthodox Churches, especially the Coptic children and youth.
  • Influence and motivate our youth to gain spiritual benefits and excel in their
    different areas of spiritual interest domains.
  • Identify, nurture, and further develop leadership skills in our Coptic youths

Mahragan Structure: Hybrid Model

Participants’ age groups (based on the current 2023-24 school year):

• • • 3-Year old to Kindergarten
    • 1st to 3rd Grade
    • 4th and 5th Grade
    • 6th to 8th Grades
    • 9th to 12th Grades
    • College and adults (in English or Arabic)

The competitions this year will be divided in three categories:

1. Core Competition (All participants are required to register for spiritual
   (mandatory) and are encouraged to register for Coptic and/or Hymns ):
   • The Spiritual Curriculum (books)
   • Coptic
   • Hymns (Group Competition)
2. Advanced Competitions:
   • Research
   • Art
   • Creative Writing
   • Calligraphy
   • Photography
   • Video Production
   • Music Writing and Creation
3. Sports competitions (Soccer, Ping Pong, & Chess Tournament)

Instructions, General Information & Important Dates

• The 2024 Mahragan will be held in 3 phases:
  • Phase 1: Preliminary Spiritual and Coptic, from 8/17/24 to 8/20/24 : ALL Virtual. This Will be similar to 2023 Mahragan, such that Spiritual and Coptic competitions will be conducted online. The median score for each age group from each church will be calculated, and the top 3 winning churches will be announced accordingly. Details and links on how to access the online tests will be sent prior to the scheduled exam date to each church coordinator.
  • Phase 2 In-Person: On Saturday, 8/24/24, sports competitions for Soccer, Ping Pong, and Chess will be in-person games on this day).
  • Phase 3: On Saturday, 9/7/24, in-person finalists competition and awards ceremony: Finalist 3 churches (from Phase 1) in each core competition (Spiritual, Hymns, and Coptic) from each age group will be invited to the Finalists’ Competition at St. Mary’s Coptic Church in MD.

Advanced Competitions such as Arts, Research, Creative Writing, Video Production, Calligraphy, Photography, Music Writing and Creation, and Hymns must be submitted online by the due date (to be announced); judges will score these before Phase 3, and winners will be announced during the Awards Ceremony. Participants participating in these categories must submit their work using the submission link on the Mahragan website (available in early July) by the deadline of 7/22/24. Hymns competition submission deadline will be extended till August 20, 2024. Refer to each age-group book and the guidelines and rules for each of the advanced competitions on the Mahragan website for more details.

Competition Study Materials

All study material will be available for downloading and/or printing at https://mahraganalkeraza.org/study-guides/ (this link will be activated on June 1st)

Online Registration & Deadlines

Registration & payments will be online only.

• • • Participants Registration Link: Click Here
      • Early-bird Registration $15
      • Regular Registration $25
    • Judges Registration: Each church is required to register eight judges (1 judge per competition) – deadline 7/1/2024– Free
  • Competition Requirements
  • The minimum age to participate in the spiritual competition is three years old
  • The minimum age to participate in the video, research competitions is 2nd grade
  • The minimum age to participate in the creative writing and chess competitions is 1st grade
  • Soccer Competition is available up to 12th Grade (HS). No adult soccer competition.
  • All School grade Participants must participate in their school grade year 2023 – 2024 (for example, Participants who completed 2nd grade before the competition date must join with the 2nd-grade age group)
  • All participants must participate in the mandatory spiritual studies category for their specific age group. Research, Creative Writing, Art, Hymns, Coptic, Calligraphy, Music Writing and Creation, and Video Competitions are optional.
  • Each church is required to contribute with a minimum of 10 questions per age
    group with different difficulty levels (2 easy, 3 hard, & 5 medium). All questions will be imported into the testing platform engine to create a question bank for the competition in phase 1. More details about the question formats will be communicated to the Mahragan coordinator of each church.
  • Each church must also commit to 8 judges for the optional competitions. All submissions by participants will be remotely passed to judges for evaluation. A unique link will be sent to the coordinators to register their church judges.

Day of the Online (phase 1) Competition Rules:

• • The Mahragan Coordinator from each church will be responsible for communicating the Mahragan rules to participants.
  • Family members and servants are NOT allowed to help the participants during their online exams.
  • All exams (spiritual and Coptic) will be timed. Scores will be automatically calculated based on the correctly answered questions, and exam questions may be weighted differently based on their difficulty level.
  • Participants are not allowed to use books, study notes, phones, or internet search online during their exam to find correct answers to questions.

Scoring and Ranking Methodology:

• • The scoring and ranking methodology will be accurate, and fair based on the automatic scoring of questions.
  • At the end of the online test, the median of the scores across all participants per church and per age group is used as the church’s final score for that age group.
  • The top 3 ranked churches in each Competition and age group will be invited for the in-person competition on 9/7/24 (Phase 3).
  • Optional competitions (Arts, Creative writing, Research, Calligraphy, Music Writing and Creation, Photography, Hymns, and video competition) will be judged by a set of human judges, and average or median scores will be used to determine the final score per submission.

The Winners’ ceremony will take place on Saturday, 9/7/24, hosted by H.G. Bishop Karas.