Ramadan Kareem!

Ramadan has officially begun. If by no other means, the hustle and bustle in the streets would give it away. The past five days I’ve happily pushed past crowds on the sidewalks selling and buying dates, nuts, sweets, and since this year Ramadan corresponds with the beginning of school, notebooks, pencils, and backpacks.

Imagine the excitement of Christmastime and preparing Thanksgiving meals every night for a month and you have the general idea. Ramadan is a holy month for Muslims, the month in which the Quran was revealed. Throughout the entire month fasting takes place from sunrise to sunset. This morning we woke up at 3:00 to eat before the first call to prayer, which marks the Fajar (sunrise) prayer. This meal eaten before the first light of day is called Suhuur. Most people wake up either to the alarm on their cell phones, or to the sound of the izan calling people to wake up and eat before the call to prayer, but there is also traditionally a man, Abu Tabla, who walks around the city banging on a drum to wake everyone up. Usually every neighborhood has their own drummer to summon them out of their beds.

This morning, our host grandmother came around to all of our rooms to make sure we came down to eat. There were about six of us who sleepily trudged downstairs giggling about each others sleepy faces and thinking about how we’ll be doing this for the next 28 days.

During Ramadan eating, drinking, and smoking of any kind is prohibited during the day. Sometimes it can be a tense month for these reasons since it’s likely that half of the population are smokers. From sunrise to sunset, everything moves pretty slowly. Schools get out an hour earlier, everything opens later in the day, people take extensive naps, and about an hour before the Magreb (sunset) prayer everyone goes crazy trying to make it home in time to break their fast with their families. I remember in Jordan, the hardest thing was finding a cab at this time, and complete strangers would end up sharing cabs. I am interested to see how this works in Syria because it is already complicated to find a cab driver who wants to work and will take you where you want to go. It has gotten to the point where I ask the driver where he is going first and then if it’s in the same direction I want to go, I see if he would mind taking me along.

The evening meal is called Iftar, which literally means “breakfast” since it is technically the first meal of the day. Most people break their fast with a date or soup, and then plunge face first into all the traditional specialties. When I was in Jordan, french fries were also a staple of the dinner table during Ramadan. After dinner, some families go out for a walk or ice cream, and there are always visitors coming by around 10 or 11 to wish each other many blessings and “Ramadan Kareem.”

My host grandmother, and the head of the house, advised me yesterday that if one doesn’t sleep before midnight, it’s best to stay up and wait until after Suhuur to sleep because waking up after only 3 or so hours of sleep is not good for the body. As for me, I don’t think I can afford to stay up to entertain the late-night guests. Between the new schedule, studying and three hours of Arabic a day, a good nights sleep is not something I’m willing to sacrifice!