Holy Month of Ramadan

This week we start Ramadan. While some of you may be familiar with Ramadan I know many may not be. So I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you a bit about it. And if you have any additional questions.. ask away. 

We start the roza (fasting) just before dawn, there is an actual time when the roza starts so all eating must be done before then. We wake up and have sehri or sahoor (breakfast) which can be as simple as a bowl of cereal to an elaborate multi dished meal. M and I try to open our eyes as little as possible so we stick with simple. We mix it up a bit with eggs and toast, cereal with fruit, I am going to try some overnight oats this time. In my opinion this is the hardest part of the fast. Forcing yourself to eat a meal in the middle of the night.  

Once the roza starts there is no intake of any food or fluids. No sips of water, no medication and while this one is where people are sometimes divided.. no lip balm, toothpaste, ointments, make up etc. 

We focus more on praying and reading the Quran during the day. While you can still read and watch tv you just want to preferably keep it PG. 

At dusk you break your roza (fast) with a khajoor (date). Afterwards we have iftar (eat) Once again it may be as simple or elaborate as you like. Currently, with dusk being so late we usually break our fast with some tea and cookies or something similar and then have dinner. Many of our friends have elaborate nosh sessions all the way up till bedtime. Some people actually end up gaining weight while fasting.. lol. 

We sometimes gather at a friends house for iftar and back when we were young we used to stay up all night with friends and have sehri together. Many restaurants will stay open into the wee hours of the morning and offer sehri specials even here in New Jersey. This is when you really miss living in an Islamic country.. the whole atmosphere changes. It's such a fun vibe.

Fasting becomes mandatory upon puberty. But the old and the ill are exempt. As are women when they are pregnant, nursing as well as menstruating. 

The boys do fast occasionally during Ramadan. They do it quite enthusiastically, trying to beat last year's number. They usually fast on weekends though they have fasted on some school days as well. We let them do as many as they feel comfortable with. UPDATE - D having hit puberty now fasts the whole month and H is doing most of the month as well.

I hope I explained this well. Hit me with any questions you may have. 
  

    

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