Ramadan and Easter
Hello everyone!
You’ve had to wait a long time for a new blog post, and you’ve perhaps been wondering how I’ve experienced Ramadan here and how Easter is celebrated. That’s what this blog post is about.
Ramadan is the Muslim month of fasting. It lasts 29 to 30 days, from one new moon to the next. During this time, nothing is eaten or drunk from sunrise to sunset. Exempt from this are children before puberty, the sick, women during their period, pregnant women and those who are breastfeeding. Those who cannot abstain from food and drink are nevertheless encouraged to pray a great deal and to reflect. The start of Ramadan was announced by the muezzin on the evening of 28 February. From then on, it was a matter of waiting for the majority of the population. Waiting until sunset, until the breaking of the fast, the Iftar. Naturally, this was the case here at the institute too. Most of the children got up every morning around 4.30 am, before sunrise, to eat and drink one last time. Afterwards, the girls prayed together (the boys certainly did too), as prayer plays a particularly important role during Ramadan. After praying, they went back to bed. At breakfast, it was mainly the children under ten who turned up; the others were already enjoying themselves outside playing. It was impressive to see how much energy the younger children had for playing and running about, despite fasting. With the teenagers, however, you could clearly sense the tiredness setting in from midday onwards.
Iftar in the evening was always a grand spectacle. Every evening, guests from organisations or companies would come, bringing an iftar donation and often delighting the children with gifts, games or other activities. An integral part of iftar are the dates, which are eaten at the start of the meal. The food was always delicious, and great care was taken to ensure we ate even more, even though we were actually already full. Alongside our curiosity about the experience, this was one of the reasons why Julia and I eventually decided to fast for a while. As it was quite warm on some days, it did cause the odd headache now and then, but generally it was quite bearable. This was probably mainly because Ramadan fell quite early this year and the fasting period wasn’t too long due to the days still being quite short. A particular highlight was the visit to McDonald’s to which the children were invited by the charity ‘Lions’. The best part was the playground, which the children played on extensively. For Eid al-Fitr, the children went home. Before that, however, there were presents and plenty of sweets to eat. Of course, for Ramadan, the place was also properly decorated with moons, stars, fairy lights and lanterns, just as is done everywhere in the cities.
You might already imagine that Ramadan has a major influence on public life, and that is indeed the case. Most shops didn’t open until later, around midday, but the supermarkets were mostly open as usual. An hour or two before Iftar, the streets were then filled with heavy traffic and a bustling crowd, as everyone wanted to do a quick shop for Iftar or was making their way home or to friends and relatives. During Iftar, the streets were then deserted again, as everyone was sitting down to eat in restaurants or at home. After Iftar, however, life sprang back to life. People sat in the streets and squares, eating and drinking. We, too, enjoyed going to the park in the evenings from time to time during this period to soak up the evening atmosphere.
After the holidays, the decorations at our institute were taken down straight away, as Easter was now approaching. For Easter, of course, we had to decorate appropriately with Easter bunnies and Easter eggs. In many public places, however, the Ramadan decorations are still hanging. Christians here also fast differently from how most do in Europe. Here, many Christians abstain from meat and dairy products. There is often a debate about which fast is the better or more strenuous one. Holy Week and Easter are celebrated on a grander scale here and are often more important to Christians here than they are to people in Europe. Consequently, many people attended the services held daily during Holy Week. Julia and I were, of course, once again busy playing the violin and accompanying the congregation.
On Maundy Thursday, my family – that is, my parents and my sisters – came to visit. And we were able to spend a wonderful Easter together. Hiding and eating the Easter eggs proved a bit more difficult, however, as the chocolate Easter eggs we’d brought didn’t cope very well with the sudden heatwave. As the children were also on holiday over the Easter break, I was able to make good use of the time with my family and travel around the country with them in a very relaxed manner.
Thank you very much for reading – see you soon!
This text was automatically translated using an AI-powered translation system.
