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 NOTE TO FAMILY & FRIENDS
  Dear Family & Friends, this page is all about Ramadan in the United Arab Emirates ... hope your enjoy this and get a better understanding of Ramadan ...
WELCOMING RAMADAN
OCTOBER 2004 ~ This is the season to be fasting, and this month we give you an insight into this important month in the Islamic calendar. Charlotte McDonald reports.
It's the year 1425 and Muslims all over the UAE will soon be in the throws of Ramadan festivities. Each Gregorian calendar year, the fourth and fasting pillar of Islam, or Sawm, falls on a different date. This year, celebrations will begin mid October and will continue until mid November.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the lunar Islamic Hijra calendar in which Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) exposed the Holy Qu'ran to the world. Although it is a time for Muslims to rejoice, it is also fundamental to the religion that they reflect and purify, whereby they fast during daylight hours of this period.
This isn't as harsh as it sounds. Muslims look forward to Ramadan. "It is a time where we can appreciate what we take for granted", says Veronica, who takes the guided tours inside Jumeirah Mosque. "I personally get very excited about his time of year."
Getting up before sunrise, Muslims eat and pray before spending their day without food, liquids, smoking or intercourse. Many abstain completely from the latter two for the whole month. Exceptions to not eating or drinking include young children, the elderly, pregnant, or sick. Exceptions do not include non-muslims. UAE police enforce cultural sensitivity, so this means everyone must follow suit. Of course, behind closed doors this is a different story. In your own home you may do as you please. So long as it is not public, you are free to eat and drink to your heart's content.
Getting caught in public usually means a verbal warning, but do be careful. Short jail sentences have been known to occur to those abusing the religious law. Generally speaking, the police are lenient, but preventing a scene in the first place is generally the best way to go about Ramadan.
You may also find a few light-headed drivers on the roads, so be extra lenient behind the wheel and keep an eye out for drivers going astray.
Day to day living alters during the festive period. Working hours for Muslims change, allowing them to go home in the afternoon for a siesta. Shopping times also change, with shops opening later in the afternoon and evening after sunset and Maghrib prayer, when families break the fast. This is a time for sharing, and tolerance after the abstinence of the daytime, extending to non-Muslims who are welcome to join in the feast. Many food parcels are also sent to the needy.
It is also the time when restaurants fling open their doors to the hungry public, although many establishments in Dubai are now open during the day with non-Muslims able to eat behind screened-off areas, particularly in the hotels. Even drive-through eateries are open for business. However, in Abu Dhabi restaurants are shut during daylight hours. Evening time is when Ramadan really comes alive everywhere. Iftar, as the breaking of the fast is known, is when people come together to celebrate, and is a great way for non-Muslims to get to know their Muslim neighbours. You will see marquees of comfortable cushioned majlis seating springing up all over town, at people's houses, as extensions to restaurants and as main features at nearly all of the hotels; it is a magical time. Many tents are adorned with fairy lights and the smells of cooking and shisha emitted are enticing and exciting. Orders of the evening are plates of dates, moutable and other delicious Arabic foods and shisha smoking, coupled with good conversation and a game of backgammon, or taula in Arabic.
Bars open by about 6pm - 7pm and alcohol (in Dubai, not Abu Dhabi) is permitted. What you won't find though is any live entertaiment or dancing, so expect a quiet couple of pints at your local rather that the usual dirty dozen to the sounds of a DJ or live singing. CDs or radio may be played on low behind some bars, but nightclubs are generally closed altogether. Generally speaking, it is not a time for rowdy behaviour or insensitive actions, so bear in mind where you are and your fasting neighbour. In Iftar tents however, you will find the odd belly dancer or a traditional oud and tabla band.
Another alternative for entertainment is camping, a popular pastime during the months of Ramadan when it falls during the winter months. During the summer, people tend to hold more house parties, as it is too hot to handle outside. Whatever time of year Ramadan falls on, you can be guaranteed some excellent hotel deals.
Following the month of fasting comes a four-day holiday known as Eid, another celebration and metaphorical pat-on-the-back to those who have fasted for four weeks. Many people head to the coast or hop on a plane and shoot off for the period. Check the papers and Internet for some fantastic deals in and around the UAE.
Disappointingly, after Eid life gets back to normal!
SMOKING
A tradition that has been passed down through the Arabic generations in shisha. Smoked through a buld-ended glass vessel - hubbly-bubbly or hookah - shisha is a pastime enjoyed any time of the year, but particularly during Ramadan. The shisha itself is specialised coal, and a handmade amalgamation of tobacco, aromas and molasses. It comes in many flavours, including rose, strawberry, Bahraini apple, grape, aniseed, melon and cocktails of several others. This sits in a metal dish at the top of the glass contraption. Like cigarettes, shisha contains nicotine, but no tar. As it burns, the smoke is passed and cooled through water via a long pipe as the user inhales. Good quality shisha unsually burns for up to three hours.
PITCHING UP
Most establishments along the coastline tend to have a fabulous set up for Iftar celebrations. Even some of the less salubrious places in the older parts of town, such as Deira and Bur Dubai, are mobbed during Ramadan. Generally speaking, wherever you pitch up you will find a wonderful and comfortable atmosphere. All places are free to enter, but you must pay for food and shisha once inside.
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