Ramadan is a time for fasting, reflection and prayer. It is also a time for special foods and for sharing with family and friends.
Ramadan is the most important holiday in the Muslim year. It falls on the 9th month of the Islamic calendar, which is a lunar one. This means that that the traditional Muslim year is about 11 days shorter than the Western Calendar, which is astronomical. Because of this, like the Jewish Calendar, the exact dates for Muslim holy days “float” from year to year. In 2008, Ramadan will begin at Sunset on August 31st . In 2009, it begins at Sunset on August 21st and in 2010, it begins at Sunset on August 11th. To extend the calendar out, check out the website: www.when-is.com/ramadan.
Fasting During Ramadan
Ramadan, like Christian and Jewish holidays have a serious relationship with food – but, in this case, that relationship involves a rather strenuous fast. During the month of Ramadan, all adult Muslims traditionally abstain from eating, drinking and smoking from the moment a white thread can be distinguished from a black one at sunrise to that moment at sunset when you cannot tell the difference between the two thread colors.
During the day, believers traditionally spend their time in prayer and are exhorted to refrain from all things that are forbidden in the Quran. In Islamic countries, the whole public culture is centered around this fast. Newspapers give regular advice on time-tested techniques for fasting and of breaking the daily fast in ways that are deemed to be medically safe. Publications are also filled with special recipes for the eventual breaking of the fast – which is a time for eating with extended families and good friends, giving the event a social, as well as religious aspect.
Recipes for using camel meat are especially prized – although in many parts of the Middle East, camels have become too scarce to slaughter for their meat. These days, much of the camel meat that is sold and consumed during Ramadan is imported from Somalia and other parts of North Africa.
Camel Meat is Traditional - and Prized - During Ramadan
Camel meat is popular because the Prophet Muhammed is said to have remarked that “Nobody is of my family who does not eat the flesh of the camel.”
During Ramadan, it is also not uncommon among the most observant communities for the men to spend the nights, as well as the days, praying and contemplating in the mosques. In such cases, wives often bring food to the mosques at the appropriate times, so that the men of the family might eat, without interrupting their meditations.
Each year, Ramadan ends with a two-day feast that is the rival of any lavish holiday meal in any religion or country. It’s name, Id- al-fitr, means “feast of breaking of the fast” in Arabic. During these days, the children are traditionally given sweet treats and toys and the whole family gets new clothes. A sheep is slaughtered and roasted over an open fire – with the entire extended family and close family friends coming to share the meal.
