Recently I’ve talked to one girl from Jordan. Among other things, she told me about the tradition to congratulate all the women by presenting them money. I still don’t understand why they separate people in this way but I definitely liked that tradition.
Then I’ve surfed the Internet and found more about interesting traditions of celebrating the holiday after Ramazan (spoiler: nobody else present money to women). In Indonesia, Muslims bathe in natural water bodies, this ritual is called Padusan. It’s believed that such bathing keeps the soul and body of the believer pure. Formerly, the place for such a ritual had to be chosen by the elders. Nowadays people just searching for some lakes or pools, somebody can even bathe at home. There is a tradition in South Africa called “maan-kikers” – ” Moon observers”. Muslims from all around the country go to Capetown to find the new Moon on the sky. Only “maan-kikers” who are usually selected by the Islamic court council cam proclaim the appearance of the new moon and inform about the beginning of Oraza bayram.
There is another tradition in Turkey where drummers dressed in national costumes wake people up for the morning meal (temchit). This tradition is alive since the epoch of the Ottoman Empire. A lot of countries of the Persian bay have the same tradition.
In Marocco, there is a nafar – the town herald dressed in traditional clothes. Usually, he starts singing prayers and blow the horn at dawn.
In many countries of the Middle East, cannons are fired at sunset every day of Ramadan. This sound informs about the time to start eating. In Egypt, almost all the houses, streets, and districts are lightened by special lamps made of glass and metal called fanus. Fanus became a universal symbol of Ramadan because of its complicated design. There is special fasting for children in Pakistan called ” sparrow fasting”. A child should wake up with his family early in the morning and start fasting until the time he can. The older the child gets, the longer his fasting lasts. When he becomes older and manage to fast all day long, everybody congratulates him and presents something.
Emine SHERFE
