Ramadan is more than a Holy Month: it is an important period of time for Muslims, rooted in culture, faith, and history. All around the globe, the Holy Month of Ramadan encourages Muslims to participate in charity, fasting, and Ibadah.
There are around 1.6 billion Muslims around the globe, scattered into many cultures and for that, we are going to take you on a captivating journey to show you the fascinating variety of observance of Ramadan across different cultures.
Even though Muslims now can just simply set an alarm to wake up for Suhour, it was traditionally Mesaharaty job to wake up Muslims for Suhour. In Ramadan, Muslims tend to wake late at night because of Ibadah or maybe simply spending time with their families, and that can make waking up early at dawn quite difficult for them.
Even in modern times, it is a common tradition in many Middle Eastern, North African or some Asian countries to appoint Mesaharaty to wake them up for Suhour. A Mesaharaty walks around the villages, soft beating his drum and calling out loud for Muslims to wake up and start preparing for Suhour.
In Western and Non-Muslim Majority countries, the Muslims still use modern ways to wake themselves up but the Muslim communities can still appoint a Mesaharaty to wake them up at dawn, which would bring back the nostalgia of old times.
With all the blessings that come with Ramadan, the sense of gratitude among Muslims increases enormously, especially when fasting. One can feel what it like is to be hungry for the most part of the day. With this, most of the Muslims plan out Ramadan Food bags, where they provide families with one day ration. In Western countries, Muslim communities plan out Iftaar events and happily provide food to anyone regardless of their religion.
In Arab and Asian countries, most of the Mosques arrange Suhour and Iftaar for believers. Even more heart-warming tradition is when they arrange Iftaar on the roads. They even stand in the middle of a busy road, providing water and dates to any passers-by cars or pedestrians in case the Adhan starts.
Taraweeh is also known as “night prayer” and Muslims all around the globe do sincere preparations for it. It is not obligatory to perform Taraweeh, but Mosques are all usually full-packed. Different communities arrange Taraweeh prayers on roads and they are fully observed throughout Ramadan.
In Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt; and North Africa regions, it is an Islamic tradition to break the fast with dates and goat milk, but almost every culture has its own traditional dishes that play an important part during Ramadan. In Muslim majority countries, it is suggested to start shopping for Iftaar meals as it gets really messy to do the shopping for ingredients during fast. Most cultures install special Ramadan markets that not only provide ingredients at cheaper rates but also are arranged in open areas to avoid suffocation.