Beq's Bits: Ramadan Birthday Party

Today was the first day of the Ramadan fast. I decided after much reflection to fast with the rest of society here. The muslim fast begins at the sunrise call to prayer - I'm not usually awake for that since it is around 5am right now, I think. Most people get up before that call to prayer in order to eat before the day's fast begins. Once the fast begins there is no eating or drinking (even water!!) until the sunset call to prayer. It was much harder to not drink anything through out the day than to skip the food. It did give me a chance to spend some extra time in prayer during my lunch break. The reason for the fast, as explained by my Muslim friends, is to learn to empathyze with the poor and also to spend extra time in prayer. The five calls to prayer per day are especially heeded throughout the month. After the evening call to prayer, the fast is broken with ftur - breakfast. Traditionally they eat dates and milk, then shebekia (a pastry), then harira (a hearty soup of chick peas and other veggies & meat). Then there is a pause in the feast schedule before dinner is served, sometimes as late as midnight or one AM!

This year the first day of Ramadan also fell on my friend Manal's birthday. She is new to our city and her family lives about 3 hours away, so I wanted to make sure she had a fabulous birthday celebration as well as a "family" around her for the first ftur of Ramadan. About 12 girlfriends gathered in our apartment and we had an awesome time celebrating and feasting. She was really touched that we cared enough to make the day special for her. Here are some pictures...

Dates & Olive Crepes (?) - to break the fast