Ramadan in Jordan

The first tie that I truly experience Ramadan, the Holy Month of Muslims, I was in Jordan. It was clearly a month of reflection, celebration and appreciation. As a Jordanian young man put it, it was a month for soul-searching, a time for thanking God for all that one had in one’s life and a period for personal growth. This was reflected in the general atmosphere of Amman and the whole of Jordan. 

A couple of days before Ramadan started, we saw special Ramadan foods being sold at the busy bazaars of Amman. There were special dates and pastries. People were excited to see these foods that they had not eaten since the previous Ramadan. A Christian lady who worked for the NGO that I was volunteering for told with, with a wide smile on her face: ‘It is so great that you can experience Ramadan here in an Islamic country. Even me as a Christian a excited about it. We get all these special foods that we only get to eat during Ramadan. In my house, we also gather and eat them in the evenings. Though we don’t celebrate Ramadan as such, the month does give us more time to be together as a family and to see our friends.’ 

Muslims aspire to follow their Prophet Mohammad in all that they do. One habit that the Prophet had was to eat dates and drink milk, which is why Muslims tend to break their fast after a long day with these two refreshments before eating anything else. After the date and the milk, people would eat as much as they possibly good. They would break their fast with family and friends. No one wanted to do that alone. The meal times were highly appreciated.

If you went to a restaurant at the time when people broke their fast, you would see people gathering mountains and mountains of food in front of them and then attacking the mountains when they heard the prayer call from the mosque and they knew that they were allowed to eat. For us observes the sight was incredible - people eating as if they had not seen food for years. My Japanese colleague told me that that sort of defeated the purpose. The main idea behind the fast was to build self-control, discipline and appreciation of the food and water that one normally had in one’s life. This habit of eating mountains of food afterwards seemed to counteract the purpose of fasting.

During Ramadan, we were not allowed to eat or drink out on the streets. Not even to drink water in the beaming sun. The office was also a no food and no drink zone. Even if you were not a Muslim, you should respect their Holy Month. Working hours during Ramadan were shorted to half a day. This made people more productive and did not tired them as much. More importantly, this gave time for people to go to the mosque for prayers and to spend time in quiet contemplation. It also gave people more time to spend with the family and loved ones. 

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For more information on Ramadan, see this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/religion/islam/ramadan.shtml