Eid Mubarak everybody

[WeeE]

Nope - there are 2 Eids, one at the end of Ramadan (~70 days ago) and this one.

I'm glad you said that. I was having a very surreal back-to-the-future moment, there.

 

[WeeE]

..in the North, Ramadan will end up eventually in summer, when the instruction to fast from dawn to dusk is much more difficult than in winter...

It did in the late '80s - 87 or 88, thereabouts. I remember a couple of folk I knew back then looking distinctly peaky - getting up at 4 so they could have breakfast, and beginning to flake out by 8pm with another hour or two to go till dinner. I think more people than the usual not-well/pregnant excused themselves that year - people with exams, driving jobs etc.

 

[Arch]

It did in the late '80s - 87 or 88, thereabouts. I remember a couple of folk I knew back then looking distinctly peaky - getting up at 4 so they could have breakfast, and beginning to flake out by 8pm with another hour or two to go till dinner. I think more people than the usual not-well/pregnant excused themselves that year - people with exams, driving jobs etc.

I gather that Islam is quite sensible and pragmatic in that sort of respect - if following a rule puts you in danger, then it's ok to break it.

 

[Cubist]

Arch

The whole Islamic Calendar goes back by ten days every year. For the next few years Ramadan will become more and more challenging as it will become earlier and earlier through the summer, and it'll be a good few years before it gets back the other side of British Summer time.

I once worked on a volunteer project in Switzerland in the 1980s. One of the volunteers was Moroccan, and it was Ramadan. He put in a full day's work, every bit as hard as we did, and despite it being a very hot summer. I remember thinking how strong his faith was.

Muslims who cannot fast for health reasons are indeed excused, as are travellers.They are expected to make up for the fasting later, or pay a charitable donation, the equivalent to feed a person, for each day of fasting they miss.

 

[Arch]

It all shows how arbitrary our calendars are - even with the things that are 'celestially' determined, we can interpret them in different ways, all as correct as each other.

 

[WeeE]

I gather that Islam is quite sensible and pragmatic in that sort of respect - if following a rule puts you in danger, then it's ok to break it.

People from loads of different places have said to me that the experience of fasting does make them understand something of what poor people go through - feeling hunger-pangs, lethargy, low morale. Apparently it's pretty different experientially from "dieting".

Practical Empathy 101, really.

 

[Vikeonabike]

I gather that Islam is quite sensible and pragmatic in that sort of respect - if following a rule puts you in danger, then it's ok to break it.

Mmm. That will be the excuse many of the Moslem youths on my patch are using for drinking and smoking.....if they don't they are in danger of being beaten up by their mates!

 

[Fnaar]

I shall make it my duty to eat extra mince pies today, to make up for something or other, just in case.

 

[Arch]

Mmm. That will be the excuse many of the Moslem youths on my patch are using for drinking and smoking.....if they don't they are in danger of being beaten up by their mates!

No, I suspect that comes under the natural cussedness of youth....

Ramadan does make Lent look a bit feeble, although I suppose it's the same principle.

 

[Aperitif]

If at least one of the two celebrations falls on a full moon, we could have an "Eid (a) Night Ride to the Coast"

 

[Andy in Sig]

That's interesting. I thought Issac was the son that Abraham was going to sacrifice, who later went on to become ancestor to all the Jews through his son Jacob. I thought moslems regarded themselves to be descended from Abraham by his other son, Ishmael, whose mother was Sarah's handmaiden.

It was all invented by Bob Dylan in a verse of Highwy 61.

God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son".
Abe said, "Man, you putting me on?"
God said, "No"
Abe said "What? OK where do you want this killing done?"
God said, "Out on Highway 61".

Here endeth the lesson. No mention of being rotten to sheep though.