Qathayef--stuffed Ramadan pancakesI like to sum it up as follows: Ramadan is ~30 days of devotion to Allah through fasting and prayer, a time for kindness and generosity towards others (especially the less fortunate), and an opportunity for family bonding through a shared ordeal and the communal breaking of the fast at the giant iftar meal. The fasting isn't any joke either--people are supposed to go from sun-up to sun-down without food or drink. I kind of half-tried it for the first day; while I could deal with the self-denial of food begrudgingly, I couldn't get passed the slow draining dehydration and gave up after only about 5 hours ha.
Certainly life during Ramadan is a lot different in Irbid than in Amman. Not a single restaurant is open during the day in Irbid and alcohol is impossible to come by. On a few weekend excursions to Amman, by comparison, I found a number of restaurants open in the trendier parts of the city, and some willing to serve beer and liquor to boot. I would be remiss if I didn't also mention friends' apartments, where the wine flowed freely (many thanks ladies and gents).
It is actually illegal in Jordan to eat in public during Ramadan days, so I took to stocking up on plenty of eats and drinks at the apartment, where I pretty much embarked on a self-imposed hermit life to wait out the month. Grocery stores are all open as normal so I had no trouble getting the supplies any time I wanted, but it just got a bit tiring and uncomfortable always concealing a very natural bodily need to eat and especially drink in the context of ~80-90 F days.
The season also affected my daily university class schedule, as lectures and breaks were shortened to accommodate the added stress and decreased energy of the average student (not to mention professor). Armed with a good deal of prior background knowledge on Islam and an openness to this, another aspect of cultural immersion in the life abroad, I nevertheless must draw the following points from my personal experience of Ramadan in Irbid:
1. Deviants
While there are many Muslims who are steadfast adherents to the demands of fasting, I also encountered plenty of people who seemed content to cheat a little bit, provided they could do so in private and in moderation. It seemed that in many cases the social stigma of prematurely breaking the fast greatly outweighed any religious significance. I witnessed young men quickly scarfing down bags of chips and swigs of water in the parking area under my apartment bloc, and all kinds of folks buying small snacks at the supermarket well before proximity to iftar would warrant such purchases. It gave me some comfort to know I wasn't the only Irbid resident that found the fast ridiculously hard; but it was equally frustrating that most people continued deny that they (or others) regularly broke the fast early.
2. Work Ethic
Clearly the normal demands of the working life exact an extra burden during Ramadan. As a result, schools and government offices shorten their workday considerably and the general rule is to take things easy (if you have a job that affords you that opportunity). Beyond the effects of the fast, however, I also got the feeling that a lot of people use Ramadan as an excuse to work as little as possible. The normal waiting time in officials' offices, for example, seem to drag on and on while employees exchanged 'Ramadan kareem's and long sighs. This phenomenon also extended to students, who felt justified in skipping lectures or homework. Granted, I have a bit of a biased perspective having not fasted at all, but editorial cartoons in the Jordanian dailies seemed to support my observation of the excessive lethargy of the general working public during this holy month.
3. Night Owls
Now, first off, Arab culture is already predisposed to late nights hanging out with friends at cafes, restaurants, and living rooms. But I was totally unprepared for the sahar during Ramadan. Normally people and especially the college crowd is often up til 1 or 2 out along the strip of cafes and restaurants abutting the University here. During Ramadan, I am convinced that a lot of then simply choose to stay up til the dawn meal just before the i'than at fajr (around 4:30am), based on the still vibrant nightlife I observed on one pretty late night for myself. This is an understandable habit, given people may not want to 'waste' the only acceptable daily period of eating and drinking on mere sleep. Naturally, this behavior also explains a lot of my preceding point, as many people retire to much-needed naps after the end of the workday around 2pm.
4. Running
Ramadan presented some (perhaps obvious) challenges to my running schedule. Not eating or drinking in public was as much a sign of cultural respect on my part as adherence to a state law. So it went with running in the morning or during the day; if I could be engaging in some strenuous physical activity then surely I was fluanting my stores of carbs and liquids from earlier. As a result, I took to timing my runs to finish just before the sunset iftar, when it was at least possible that I could be exercising just ahead of replenishing myself at the huge daily meal. It was also legit for me to be running quickly home to meet up with my theoretical family for breaking the fast. Not that running is ever easy in this country, however, and certainly the snickers of teenagers at my running shorts and disapproving if awe-struck stares of pretty much everyone else only seemed to increase during the holy month.
5. Traffic
Ramadan presented two major problems for daily transit: congestion and accidents. From my perspective, this only really affected my efforts to secure a spot on the crowded buses headed to Amman in the hours before iftar (along with probably every commuting Yarmouk U student), not to mention procuring a ride back later that night. For the general public, the common workday finale of 2pm creates massive congestion on the city roads and especially in Amman. Worse still though, are traffic conditions just before sunset. While most cars have been cooling in garages since the 2pm rush, there are always those idiots who chose to work or dilly-dally until the last possible moment before iftar. With little time, low blood sugar levels, and poor decision-making skills and reflexes, these people become dangers to pedestrians and other equally crazy drivers as they hurry home excessive speeds and run red lights ad infinitum. Not surprisingly, the number of traffic accidents (and particularly fatal ones) rises dramatically during Ramadan; a sad and ironic fact of life in a month at least nominally devoted to praising Allah and respecting and loving your neighbor.
6. Family
Despite all of the faults and contradictions I may find in Ramadan in Irbid, it retains an impressive ability to unite families and old friends around a communal struggle and shared reward. I got to experience the special atmosphere of a family iftar thanks to an invitation from my friend Mohammad downtown, and I can testify to the curious ability of self-denial, self-control and mental and physical devotion to bring together family and friends for a fast-breaking that truly feeds the spirit as much as the body. But...it also feeds the body. And man was it good: mansef, kufta, tahini, qatha'if, tamar hindi, etc.
In a sense (maybe a very limited one ha) I will miss Ramadan when I leave this place. Actually, I don't know if I'll experience it again before I leave in late summer next year. For although it presented many hardships for the American non-Muslim and I counted down the days til 'Eid with even more zeal than anyone else, it was a very unique and humbling opportunity to experience an outward manifestation of the religious and cultural traditions that undergird daily life. Ramadan Kareem.
...Of course It's also true that I was kind of fed up with the whole routine by the last few days and escaped to Turkey for 'Eid and ten days of glorious holiday. But more on that next time...
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