Ramadan

Ramadan started on September 1st this year and is the Muslim religious celebration that takes place during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Muslim's believe this is the month that the Qur'an was revealed to Angel Gabriel, to deliver it to the Prophet Muhammad. During this month Muslims fast and do not eat or drink anything from sun up to sun down and offer up more prayers than usual. They get up before dawn to eat Suhoor, the pre-dawn meal, and perform the fair prayer. They do not eat or drink anything after this prayer is said, until the fourth prayer of the day, Maghrib, is due and then they break their fast with Iftar. Only people that have reached puberty are required to fast but most often the children want to try to fast also. This makes this month difficult for our students. Since we are an American school we don't change our schedule for Ramadan. So our kids are often tried and very hungry and thirsty, but for the most part we have been very impressed with how well the handle themselves and their school work. They usually get up are 4:00 am to eat their Suhoor and the go back to sleep for a little bit, then come to school. After school they usually take a nap because they are tired and hungry and wake up to give their Maghrib prayer and break their fast with Iftar. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims are very active and social, they invite huge gatherings of friends over for the Iftar and celebrate late into the night eating, they also participate in many sports and it's common for our students to have soccer tournaments at the Sporting Club till midnight and sometimes even later. The streets are decorated with streamers and special Ramadan lanterns. They are also lined with lots of food sellers for the big Iftar fests every night, including lots of butchered animals hanging up at the butcher shops (gross). There are extra calls to prayers during this month that we hear and on Friday's (the Holy day) it seems like the Muslim services, which are played on loud speakers all over the city, never stop. During noon on Friday it's almost impossible to get around town, there are so many people on their pray mats that they spill out of the mosque and sometime into the streets for one or two blocks past the mosque. We are also woken up by a special call they have in the morning to wake people up for their Suhoor before the sun rises. The holy month of Ramadan ends with the week of Eid ul-Fitr which we have off from school and are going with a couple of our friends to the Red Sea.