Ramazan

I figured since we’ve almost hit the middle of Ramadan, it would be fun to tell you a little bit about what that looks like here in Kurdistan according my experiences. First of all, the people here say RamaZan, not RamaDan. So, that took a little getting used to. In general, I expected Ramazan to be a sad, depressing time, but I’ve found the opposite to be true. The family I stay with here looked forward to it with anticipation. The first sign that Ramazan was coming was 15 days before the start of the fast. This day was called Barat, and kids came around to all the houses and got candy. This was a little like trick-or-treating but without the costumes.






Then, the evening before the fast began, they made a special bread called “nawsagy.” It is deep fried in oil, it is delicious, and it is so healthy!





Then, on the 11th the fast began. So, at about 3am that morning we all woke up and ate the nawsagy with yogurt, and then we stayed up until the 4am call to prayer to drink water. Here the call to prayer is called the bong. Once the bong began, there was no more eating and no more drinking until the bong as dusk. I participated in all of this the first day, just to experience what it is like for them, but since then I haven’t – I just really like drinking water when it’s 110 degrees outside! Anyway, what happens at the evening bong, I definitely participate in! This is the time when they break their fast. Really, it feels like New Years Eve every day, counting down the time until they can drink water. They sit and wait, and wait, and keep asking me how long until the bong. (I'm the only one who actually keeps track of when the bong happens. I guess that's my time-oriented westernism coming out.) As soon as the bong starts, they start chugging water. They also think it's fun if I chug water with them, even though I haven't done the water fast since the first day. If I don't drink right away, they yell at me. :) After they drink, they eat a light soup and some dates. Then they go pray. Here’s a picture of the table all ready for the bong to sound.






When they come back from praying, we eat a regular meal. They can then eat and drink as much as they like throughout the evening, and then at 3am it all starts again, and this continues for a total of 30 days. In general, I am so surprised that I don’t hear people complaining more about their thirst and hunger. Instead of people being sad about having to do this, the people I encounter seem happy and glad to do it.

Also, I found it interesting to walk through the bazaar during the day. All the restaurants had curtains across the front if they were open. I heard that if a restaurant is open during the day, they have to pay some sort of tax. Being in the bazaar itself is fun, because people are going crazy, buying everything. You know when you go grocery shopping when you’re hungry, and you end up buying a lot of things you don’t need? Well, this is what every person in the bazaar is doing! I think the sellers get a lot more business than they do on regular days, which is a little ironic to me since everyone is fasting! Then, the closer the time gets to the evening bong, which is at about 6:43 right now (it’s about a minute or so earlier each day), the streets completely clear out. It’s like a ghost town, with maybe one person pushing his cart home as fast as he can to not miss the bong.


At the end of Ramazan there is a two or three day feast. I don’t know much about this, because I didn’t experience this yet, so maybe I’ll include that in my next blog entry. :)


One last picture - this morning I decided to stay up to see the sun rise instead of going back to bed after the 4am bong. This picture is when it's still dark, but just a little bit of light is beginning to appear behind the mountain. You can even still see some of the stars in the sky.