Ramadan

Eating and not eating are, of course, the aspects of Ramadan most obvious to the non-Muslim. Apart from changed service hours in many (but not all) cafés and restaurants, decorations of streets, shops and houses mark the holy month. In this sense it’s quite similar to Christmas time in Germany, complete with special TV shows that return every year in the same or similar manner, and it’s high season for everyone involved in charity and raising money to help the poor or other worthwhile causes. More than once I meet a group of students not far from our house trying to get people to donate by holding up posters at the road side or even on the road. The bus drivers, however, are not very happy about this.

Mosque in Zamalek

Decorations are both colorful and glittery with the fanouz, a traditional lantern, being a good mix of both, they are made from golden metal frames holding colorful glass plates with pictures of the Ka’aba in Mecca, calligraphies of the creed, crescents and the like. As darkness falls early, they shine brightly at the time when people are allowed to eat. Especially impressive are the shops selling them with their whole front yard shining in the glow of lanterns ranging from hand size to shoulder height. Other shops use both fanouzs and draperies of colorful traditional patterns on their front walls, in the windows, wrapped around trees in front of the shops, in every possible corner. On top of all this glittering garlands and strings of flags and tiny lights are put up on some mosques and in many narrow streets. As the feast at the end of the holy month approaches mosques also start to further extend the temporary terraces with more fences hung with the same traditional draperies.

Urging people to buy sweets and gifts, many shops also extend their capacities to the sidewalk or open spaces between houses and large companies, of course, issue everyday food in seasonal packaging. I keep some of them as gratis souvenirs and I very much enjoy kahk, the rich seasonal biscuits, some with almonds or nuts, some filled with dates.

Living in a Christian family and in the last days of Ramadan with some class mates from my language school I am somewhat distant from the central meaning of this month, but it still influences my daily rhythm to some extent. In general I feel traffic is a bit lower than usual, probably a combination of summer holidays, heat and Ramadan. Shortly before Iftar, however, streets get really crowded as everyone is doing some last minute shopping and hurrying home or to wherever the day’s fast will be broken. Then all of a sudden streets get deserted as darkness falls.

Once I am in a taxi at that very time and see how the community cares for those who have to work during this hour: A young man is handing out dates, the traditional first bite, to drivers passing by. All the good host, the taxi driver repeatedly insists on passing his date on to me, I don’t feel it would be appropriate to decline it in the end…

The time of the feast is very quiet indeed, as many people choose to spend the holidays outside of town, if they can afford it. The club in the neighborhood I live in these days, however is overcrowded with children playing, eating sweets and riding ponies. In Zamalek, to where I return on the second day of the feast, I don’t feel much difference in the evenings, but it is very quiet during the day. Maybe I now have some idea how Muslims feel in Germany in December…