My trip to Jordan, part 3: I experience Ramadan

My trip to Jordan was particularly exciting because I was there during the month of Ramadan, which is an important time for Muslims. As you will remember, I have previously visited three other countries where the majority of the people are Muslims: Pakistan, Tunisia, and Turkey. Like those countries, most of the people in Jordan practice Islam. Ramadan is a month that occurs every year on the Islamic calendar. It begins with a new moon and lasts either 29 or 30 days until the next new moon. During that entire month, Muslims devote themselves to their religion by "fasting" while the sun is up. From sunrise to sunset, pious Muslims do not eat any food or drink any water.

Ramadan is an interesting time to visit a Muslim country because it is such a festive month, but it is also a difficult time to travel. Many stores and restaurants don't open during the day because nobody wants to eat food then. Lots of businesses have reduced hours. Many people adjust their schedules so that they sleep during much of the day and then stay awake late into the night, when they can eat and drink. As a  result, during the day, there isn't much going on. As soon as the sun goes down, however, the streets start to bustle with activity.

Do you remember the photo of me looking out over Amman? Here is a photo of me at the same spot right as the sun was setting.

Dusk in Amman during Ramadan.

When this picture was taken, it wasn't fully dark yet, but the sun had just dipped below the horizon. Do you see the green light on the minaret behind me? Mosques turn on green lights at sunset so that people know when the fast is over. In addition, a person in the mosque known as the muezzin goes to a loudspeaker and begins to recite the call to prayer. In Arabic, the call to prayer is known as the adhan. You can hear an example of an adhan here. Pious Muslims pray five times each day, including at sunset. During Ramadan, once you hear the muezzin recite the adhan, you know that it is time to pray and then to eat a huge meal. If you are in a place with a lot of mosques, then you can hear adhans coming simultaneously from five, six, or even seven mosques in the nearby area. The result is a kind of strange cacophony of sound.

Nearly sunset in Amman: almost time to eat.

Sunset in Amman: time to eat.

When Muslims sit down to break their fast after a long day of not eating, they traditionally begin by eating a date. Have you ever eaten a date? They are sweet, but you have to be careful not to swallow the pit.

After breaking their fast for the day, many Muslims go out at night to do something fun. In Amman, there is a nightly celebration on the citadel called "Citadel Nights." It was amazing to see so many families, even ones with children younger than you, out celebrating on the citadel even well after midnight. You could go to shop, eat, dance, talk, or listen to music all on a beautiful night.

I have one picture from my trip to the Ramadan celebration on the citadel that I think you will particularly like. Since many of the buildings on the citadel were built by the Romans, the people who put on the party had hired a group of ten guys to dress as Roman soldiers to entertain the children. There was also a talent competition on the main stage, so the head of the legion got up to sing a song in Arabic. He was actually pretty good – obviously he was wasting his musical talents by pursuing a career as a Roman soldier!

The leader of the legion competes in the talent competition at Citadel Nights in Amman.

Fasting, incidentally, looks like a very difficult thing to do, particularly if you are in a hot place during the summer, since you aren't even supposed to drink water during the day. But some Muslims told me that, even though fasting is quite difficult, they think of fasting during Ramadan as a special part of their culture. Perhaps you know some Muslims whom you can ask about their experiences celebrating Ramadan.

--Benny