Ramadan Kareem!

Dear readers,

Ramadan Kareem! Kull sana wa into tayyibiin! (roughly translated: Blessed Ramadan, and may you be well every year! Or... Merry Ramadan and a Happy New Year!)

Ramadan in Egypt is a lot of fun, even if you aren’t Muslim. Everywhere is decorated festively – including the hotel:

And the streets are bedecked too:

 (photo courtesy of Amy)

Almost no one is around during the day, because I get the impression that most people change their work hours for Ramadan, if they’re Muslim, and they exchange shifts with Christians. (The purpose of this, of course, is to sleep off the hunger, and to keep yourself from being too sleep-deprived when your regular meal schedule involves eating at 3am.) Naturally, the people on our trip who fast have had a rough time of it, because our classes start at 9am no matter what. (I personally decided not to fast because of that; I didn’t want it to interfere with my academics, and also I was worried about the consequences of not drinking any water during the daylight hours when I tend to sweat so much here.)

The other day, we all bought Egypt-specific decorative lamps that people put up for Ramadan, called fanawiis (singular: funoos). Apparently the lamps have been around since “ancient Egyptian” times, but they got repurposed for Ramadan once the Muslims came to the country.

(That's two of my classmates, holding their recently purchased fanawiis in front of a store specializing in them. Photo courtesy of Amy)

Yes, they’re a little on the kitschy side. But they’re fun and festive – and they look great with candles or electric lights inside them. (I’m putting mine up in my on-campus apartment when I get back!) The picture of the hotel lobby earlier in this post has a funoos in it, to give you an idea of what they look like when they're lit up.

Another cool thing about Ramadan decor is that there's a particular fabric pattern that shows up almost everywhere:

People will buy fabric with this pattern by the roll and use it to decorate EVERYTHING. I've seen it on tables in stores, I've seen it in windows, and I've even seen it wrapped around trees!

And, of course... it wouldn't be Ramadan without the heavy and delicious food. Today we were invited to the house of one of our program coordinators to break fast with her, and she had made a huge, delicious, and traditional meal for us.

The food on the table:
- Dates (to eat first, since dates and milk are the official fast-breaking foods during Ramadan)
- Fateera (savory Turkish pastry)
- Molokhiya (a really good spinach-y soup that I would love to try to make at home)
- Grains (rice, pita bread, fateera without any sort of stuffing)
- Several types of savory soup
- Kofta (Turkish sausage)
- Pickled lemons(!)
The drinks:
- Water
- Fresh juices (mango, guava, apple)
The desserts:
- Dates/Apricots/Figs in sort of a salad
- Apricot pudding
- Kunafa (a nutty/fruity/sugary stringy pastry)

Imagine eating this every night! Makes sense, for if you're fasting all day every day, to have really heavy meals. (The problem is that people generally gain a lot of weight during Ramadan, because they don't exercise because of fasting, and they sit around and sleep instead, and they don't do active things with their families at night.)

All in all, it's been an awesome experience -- especially since my roommate converted to Islam a while ago and it's her first time spending Ramadan somewhere where most people are Muslim. A lot of my holiday spirit is vicariously experienced through being around her :)

Thanks for reading, folks! More stories/anecdotes later --

- Beth