Ramallah During Ramadan

When I passed through Ramallah last week – in the morning – I noted how quiet it was. Yesterday I went to meet some friends in the afternoon, and the contrast was vast. The city was full of people wandering between all the shops and market stalls. The police had even closed off one of the streets leading off the Manara (town centre) so that an impromptu Eid street market could take place there. Eid – the end of the month of Ramadan, indicated by a new moon – is only days away (Friday or Saturday). It’s also perhaps the biggest day of celebration in the Islamic calendar, so everyone was busy buying sweets, new clothes and toys for the big day. Actually I didn’t see that many people making purchases, but there were a number of people carrying bags, and all those stalls wouldn’t set up shop there without some commercial return (would they?).

What mostly everyone in Ramallah was doing was walking around and window-shopping. I think people love to walk around just to see other people walking around, who themselves are doing the exact same thing. It’s also a chance to bump into friends and I think it’s a great time if you’re a small child, especially if your parents buy you a helium balloon, some sweets or a novelty whistle. (In fact I would like to ask one mother why she decided it would be a good idea to buy her son a novelty and very high-pitched whistle, but that’s another story). Walking is also something of a curse during Ramadan, since all of the many coffee shops and restaurants are closed until sunset, (except for some of the Western restaurants). There is simply no place to sit, unless you want to ruin your trousers, so walk you must.

After a few hours of walking, talking and some standing with my friends, they decided to have the iftar (break fast) in Ramallah, so we reserved a table in a restaurant before doing some more walking. By 5 o’clock, Ramallah was emptying as people went home to eat. I was really tired, and looking forward to just sitting down, so we went to the restaurant and joined the many other people who were sitting there, waiting for sunset (roughly 5:30) as indicated by the muezzin. I guess I’d never really thought through what the iftar was actually like, but in this packed restaurant, it was quite surreal. People sat at the tables they had reserved, with little plates of salad, juice and water in front of them, and in some cases their entire meal, just staring at the food, each other, or out into space. In some ways it was reminiscent of a scene from some kind of school (or Oliver Twist) where the staff had told the pupils they must not eat on pain of death, and then placed mountains of food in front of them. Even though I’m not fasting, and had eaten lunch, the anticipation was almost unbearable. The very constraint of not being able to do something, amplified by the smell of chicken, potatoes, rice and freshly squeezed orange juice, made eating and drinking suddenly the most incredibly desirable thing to do. I don’t think this is really the point of fasting during Ramadan, which seems to be more about asceticism and cleansing the body/soul, but I haven’t been fasting for a month.

I don’t know if people waited for the muezzin (I couldn’t hear it), or simply waited until their watches showed 5:30, but all of sudden like the proverbial cork being released, everyone tucked in. Although some people had their food orders served before the breaking of the fast, we had to nibble on salad and bread for a while, and when I food eventually came they forgot one of our dishes. In fact I think it was testament to the process of rising anticipation and then eventual consummation that I enjoyed the meal, rather than the quality of the food itself. Afterwards we went for some knafe (sweet desert) and by the time we hit the streets for some more walking – although this time my full stomach welcomed the opportunity – Ramallah was full of people once again. The shops that had shut for the iftar opened, the coloured lights went on, and the walking and (window) shopping routine resumed. After a while we went to a coffee shop, which was quickly filling full of guys who wanted to watched Bab el Hara (the incredibly popular Ramadan soap opera which reaches its conclusion tonight). Since I haven’t been following the series though, I went home, and in doing so was one of the few people who was actually leaving Ramallah at that time.