Ramadan and Iftar

Right now, Muslims around the world are living Ramadan, the ninth month of their lunar calendar.  During this entire month, they fast and do not eat or drink from dawn until sunset.  The act of fasting is to teach Muslims about patience, humility, and spirituality. They pray more than usual during Ramadan and ask forgiveness for past sins, pray for guidance and help in refraining from everyday evils, and try to purify themselves through self-restraint and good deeds. In a way, you could compare this to the period of lent that Catholics live every year between Ash Wednesday and Easter.  However, unlike the Catholic lent, Ramadan is based on the lunar calendar and changes dates each year, moving backwards about eleven days each year depending on the moon. Because of that, we are not 100 % sure when the Ramadan will finish, as it depends on the sighting of a full moon, which may not happen if the sky is covered that night.. Prayer, which usually numbers five daily for about 5 minutes each time, are longer and in the last ten days of Ramadan, are very important.  In the evening, two hours after Iftar, the break of fast, we have been hearing prayers around town, for about 90 minutes.  There is another added prayer, in the middle of the night, around 1:00 am, which again lasts for 90 minutes.  I woke up last night, thank you jetlag, and heard the night prayers from the closest mosk.

 Now, during this whole Ramadan period, life for non-Muslims is also different if you live in Saudi.  It is extremely recommended to abstain from eating and drinking, laughing or behaving extravagantly in public.  Modesty in dress code should again be followed more strictly.  All in all, these are considerations for the respect of those fasting. 
What does it really mean to us?  Well, being in a workplace where many of our colleagues are Muslims, we do not eat or drink in front of them.  Today was our first day back and breakfast and lunch were offered, in a separate room.  We could see that some of our colleagues were fasting, from the low level of energy and the pale faces.  You have to understand that the sun rise around 4:30 am and set after 6:30 pm, which means 14 hours without water, while living in very high temperature in the middle of an arid desert!  I've considered not eating, but couldn't fantom not drinking.  I'm really feeling sympathy and respect for my colleagues and for Muslims around.  It's also interesting that until moving to Saudi, I really had never thought about the hardship of the fast.

At sunset Iftar or the break of fast happens by first eating one date and drinking a glass of water, then on to prayers.  It is after all important to eat nutritious and healthy foods after fasting all day.  Imagine the best of middle eastern food every night! Stuffed grape leaves, hummus, falaflel, pita,  baba ganouj, fattoush salad, tabouleh, lentil salad, fresh fruits and many many others!  Last Thursday I was invited to an Iftar banquet...what celebration!  Everybody was gathered, a prayer was said, dates were eaten by all, then more prayers, then off to a buffet with all kinds of great tasting food...  You can't live in the Middle East without having some favorites, of course and was really happy to have them again, after two months of western food fare.  I had not realized that I had missed it!

One of my colleagues was actually explaining all this to me and when asked what she missed the most during Ramadan she said coffee!  At Iftar, the first thing she has are TWO cups of black coffee...and somehow feels all that sudden a burst of energy.  Only then does she sits down and enjoy foods..and here I am, worried about all of them not drinking water during the day!

At the Iftar banquet, a man was pouring date juice from a special carafe...it was probably one of the best juices ever, a mix of what I think was rose water and date juice...Another man was going around pouring coffee as no self-respecting meal would be complete without cardamon coffee and Arabic sweets!

Bon Appetit, or more appropriately,  بالهناء والشفاء / بالهنا والشفا (bil-hanā' wa ash-shifā')