It’s that Moon of the year again– Ramadan!
Observance of Ramadan is one of the precepts of Islam, and, ideally, includes another precept– the pilgrimage to Mecca.
From the sighting of the crescent Moon, Ramadan begins and lasts until the sighting of the next crescent Moon.
The daily rigor of Ramadan begins at sunrise. Until sunset, Muslims abstain from food, drink, and sexual indulgence. That can be taken literally, though of course, there is more to food and drink than eating and drinking, and more to sexual indulgence than what can be accomplished by the constituents of the body.
Ramadan is calculated by the lunar cycle, so it begins ten or so days earlier every year. That doesn’t mean much near the equator, but here up north, it’s huge to the point where I wonder how they manage.
Why aren’t Indians soccer players? Too hot. Why aren’t Eskimos Muslims? Because one can’t observe Ramadan when the Sun never sets.
One could say, we’ll do Ramadan according to the solar schedule of Mecca. That would be a fair compromise, I would say, if it was suggested by someone desperate to keep Ramadan but prevented from that by the sheer length of days at this time of year in this part of the world. Although, eating a single peanut and sipping the smallest drop from a Dixie cup during Ramadan while the Sun is up would be as psychologically unthinkable as eating a Cadbury cream egg on Good Friday.
It’s only 28 days, you think. An even four weeks. After a single week, you’re 25% of the way through. Before sunrise one can eat all one wants, although with the Sun rising before 5:30, after the short night of sleep that follows an exhausting day of deprivation, one would need all one’s rest to face the oncoming day.
After the Sun rises, no more coffee. No sugar. No breath mints. Everybody in the office is going out to lunch at a place you’ve always wanted to go before it closes down for good in a week, but you can’t have anything.
After sunset comes the elaborate meal to celebrate the breaking of the fast, and that means enduring all the hoopla when all you want to do is have a good meal in peace and quiet when it’s almost bedtime after a long, grueling day.
Ramadan is difficult in The Great Northwest. One is surrounded by people who are mostly tolerant and non-judgmental, but we also seem to be eating, drinking, and even sexually/sensually indulgent (i.e., our Summer fashions) all the time.
We have our mountains and forests and all sorts of opportunities for the most active of lifestyles, physically and culturally, but these things can be distractions for believers. We have a mild climate, between the equator and the North Pole, but wild variations in the lengths of days. One could live here for 20 years, while Ramadan takes place from October through March, and have a relatively easy time of it, or one could live here while Ramadan happens during the other six months of the year and have about as difficult a time of it as anyone ever has.
One day at work I was in the break room with a Muslim friend. A box of doughnuts was on the table. As we finished our doughnuts, he said, “Oh, crap! It’s Ramadan!”
Pray for our brothers and sisters, the Muslims, especially during Ramadan!