Ramadan in the Holy Land

The ninth month of the Muslim calendar is Ramadan.  Like many of our months, there are 30 days. What is different about their calendar is that it is a lunar calendar - and thus 11 days earlier than ours every year (so you would really be older in calendar years!) and the ninth month is a month of fasting.

There are many different types of fasting, so I'll explain.  During Ramadan (which this year was from Aug. 10th to Sept 8th) observant Muslims can not put anything in their mouths from sunrise to sunset.  Nothing.  No food, no drinks, no water, no cigarettes, no gum....no tooth brushes (blah).  Nothing.  The purpose is to learn and understand patience and spirituality.

Wow! A month of fasting! Think how much weight they would lose! Not really.  You start your morning early with a large breakfast, then have absolutely nothing (no water.....think about it... we are in a desert!) and then exactly at sunset you can eat! So you pig out in a meal that is called an iftar dinner.  It usually starts with  a fresh date (the fruit, you're pretty grumpy at this point so a romantic date wouldn't go too well), the date is super sweet after hours of nothing.  Your meal has soup, followed by hummus and salads, followed by lots and lots of rice and sides and meats, and you top it all off with rot-your-teeth-off super-sweet desserts.  Baklava is just one of many small desserts set out to enjoy.  After dinner you smoke nargila (a flavored tobacco smoked out of a large water pipe in social settings) and then quickly go home to your family (if you didn't have this meal at home).  The next morning, you wake up super early for your breakfast, but you are still stuffed from the night before - so you can't eat much and begin another day of fasting.  Repeat this 30 times and you have the month of Ramadan.  Every night you pig out like it is Thanksgiving - you definitely don't lose weight.

Though it sounds as if it could be a pleasant spiritual experience, to us it seemed like a difficult time to plan social events, a month of late dinners (when Ramadan falls in summer), and a month of grumpy counterparts.  (I would say colleagues but honestly most of our Muslim colleagues didn't fast and our colleagues who did fast did so for only a day or so).  One friend did fast every day and I very awkwardly apologized when I offered her my strawberry guava.

It was an interesting month.  And maybe you heard of the tense time in which Eid (the end of Ramadan) and Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year) all aligned in one weekend? It wasn't tense here - we just had a lot of time off of work!

"Holiday Celebrations"

One of the best things about being posted in Israel is that we get to celebrate all of the American holidays (for us), the Israeli/Jewish holidays (for the host country) and the Palestinian/Islamic holidays (for our colleagues). While this usually works to our benefit - like for example in September when the clash of Labor Day, Ramadan, Yom Kippur and Rosh HaShanah collide giving us a grand total of 7 1/2 work days off. That is almost half the month!!!

But the down side of this is the "Holiday Celebrations." Part of my job is to make sure the office follows protocol. Now I am no expert, but I'm reading about the actual protocol and trying to take into account my coursework on culture and religion, etc. I LOVE to plan parties and social events so I was very excited to plan the welcome picnic for the new director and collect money for champagne for a toast for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year). And then....

Rosh Hashanah is Sept 9th - so we have half a day of work on the 8th. The plan was a toast on the 8th...but some people get really offended at the idea of ANY alcohol at work, even a toast. Fine - sparkling grape juice in desserts. No...that is during Ramadan so the Muslims celebrating Ramadan (one month of fasting - no eating or drinking ANYTHING from sunrise to sunset) would be offended. Okay, so Ramadan ends the 11th of Sept, we'll do it the following Monday - nope, they take off the 3 days after Ramadan ends - so we're looking at the 15th. But the director will be out of the office that day and the next - so the 17th. Ooh, that is Yom Kippur. 

So maybe instead of a toast for Rosh Hashanah on the 8th we'll have a holiday celebration at the end of the month....

Similar complications arise with planning the picnic as some of the staff lives in Ramallah (almost 3 hours away with traffic), some in Jerusalem (1.5 hours away) and some live in Jaffa (15 minutes). Where do you have a picnic? And since they have to get home after work, when do you have it? During work? Okay - then you are back to Ramadan and days off...and the end of the fiscal year.

So it looks as if our new mission director will arrive in mid-August, and we'll have a very neutral inclusive welcome picnic on October. :(  Is it better to be neutral and not offend ANYONE - or have many small celebrations and make the director feel welcomed and the staff more relaxed?  Hmm...