Since I haven’t explained much about it yet, Ramadan is the month of fasting in the Muslim lunar calendar - we actually had to wait for astronomers to determine the exact start and end dates of the month based on the moon! Fasting not only entails abstaining from food or water during the daylight hours, but also abstaining from smoking and other pleasures. The fasting period here usually ended up being around 17 hours from 3 AM to 7:45 PM; most people tend to sleep a lot during the day so shops would open around midday and only stay open until 6:30-7 PM and then open again after iftar. (Most restaurants would only open at night since no one was eating during the day!) After the call to break fast, we would eat a huge meal with the family while watching special Ramadan TV shows, then (depending on how much work we had) we would meet friends or walk around the main square until midnight or 1 AM.
I’m glad that we were able to to be a part of the experience of “breaking fast” every night with my family (even though I only fasted once, for the Night of Power last week) and sharing in the nightlife (everyone would be out and about from 9 PM to 2 AM). The only difficult things were having to be conscious of where I could eat and drink openly, without doing so in front of those who are fasting, as well as the “up all night” life - often we would have guests at all hours which was distracting when we were trying to do homework!
Yesterday was Eid al-Fitr, the big celebration at the end of Ramadan. My mom spent all weekend making cookies like we would do for Christmas; I helped her here and there with the preparations for baking since I decided to take a break from traveling that week and stay at home. She knows all the recipes from memory! My heart melted at the end of the weekend when she gave me some milk and treated me to some of the cookies - it reminded me so much of home!
One tradition for Eid is that every family tries to buy a new item of furniture for the house, although this may not take place every year depending on the cost of the item. Our family bought a new black leather wrap-around sofa for the TV room with matching cushion covers, pillows, and curtains. It looks really beautiful! Lots of cleaning was also done in preparation for the holiday.
We finally got henna done the night before and spent the holiday (which was also a day off of school!) visiting neighbors, eating lunch for the first time in a month, dressing up in our traditional garb, and spending time with family at our host grandmother’s home. The celebrations were very joyous - it was like Christmas in July! It was a long day but it was sweet to be included in the family’s plans and I’m looking forward to our last month together.