Ramadan

When the new moon is sighted after sunset on the first day of the Islamic lunar month of Ramadan. Daily life throughout the Muslim world is turned on its head. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims are required to fast from daybreak until sunset and must abstain from all food, drink, tobacco, sexual contact, and all pleasures related to the senses.

Ironically, Ramadan is more feast than fast. Muslims consume more food during this month than in any other month of the year. More than a billion Muslims around the world break the fast at sunset, eat a large meal during the night, and then begin the new day with a meal before sunrise. At the end of the day during Ramadan, the streets of major cities are all but abandoned as everyone gathers around a table somewhere to break the fast as soon as the officially sanctioned moment of sundown has passed. Moroccans traditionally break the fast with a favorite hearty soup called "harira" in which fresh bread may be dipped. This "breakfast" meal often includes hardboiled eggs, dates, and a sticky sweet pastry called "shebekkia". In cities, shops and cafés may open in the middle of the night to accommodate the tens of thousands who throng the streets until the early hours of the morning.

Although tempers fired by deprivation of caffeine, nicotine, food and sleep often lead to confrontations during long Ramadan afternoons, the shared experience of the fast tends to bring the Muslim community together. Even those who normally do not pray tend to become "good" Muslims during the fast. Opportunities for religious discussion abound but are often unfruitful due to the heightened Islamic solidarity that accompanies Ramadan. For Moroccan Christians, Ramadan can be a particularly challenging time.

"Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself ? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes ? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord ?" Isaiah 58:5

Pray the hunger Muslims experience during Ramadan will become a hunger for truth and right relationship with God.
Pray protection upon Moroccan Christians especially during Ramadan.
Pray Moroccans would learn and practice the kind of fast that pleases the Lord.

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