(no subject)
Nov. 3rd, 2003 04:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hnpccI've really been enjoying reading the Baghdad Burning blog. It's a window into a completely different situation - as, I suppose, pretty much all diaries are to some extent.
It's been interesting comparing how Ramadan is celebrated in Iraq to how it's celebrated in my suburb. I'd actually forgotten that Ramadan had started until Saturday night, when we were coming home from Larpa's on Rathdowne St and came straight into a traffic jam on Nicholson St. In front of the mosque. Oh yeah, that's right, people'd be going to the mosque because of Ramadan. For some reason I thought it was later in the month, but then again it moves. I should know, given that I work with S. (and M. and a couple of others from downstairs), but I tend to forget these things.
The family across the street gets together every night (all 15 children, together with offspring) and eats together in the room they've converted the garage into. You can smell the food start cooking around about half an hour before sunset, although I'm certain some families wait to start BBQing the meat until after sunset (too tempting: at least rice/cous cous or tabouli doesn't smell so much while cooking!) You see families walking or driving to the mosque and heading up and down the street. Generally of course the communities are more spread out - the local mosque is not necessarily the mosque that the neighbours attend, given language and other country-of-origin differences.
The biggest difference I think between celebrating in Melbourne and in Iraq at the moment is the season and therefore time needed to fast. While this year is a bit better than the last couple of years (February must suck), we're still in daylight savings and heading towards winter. Melbourne at the moment the civil twilight begins at 05:44 and ends at 20:24. For Baghdad it's 05:56 and 17:35. I sometimes wonder how people who've migrated even further north/south (e.g. Scandinavia, UK, Tasmania) cope when daylight is... well, pretty much 24 hours. Are there special dispensations for this? I suppose at least Melbourne's fairly chilly at the moment, which helps. Last year was very hot during Ramadan, I remember going to a work do the night before it began (due to the uncertainty of when Ramadan actually begins neither S or M were able to come, as we couldn't tell whether or not it would have started on that day or not - and most of us skippys had miscalculated when it was likely to be and thought it was a month later *sigh*) and it was stinking hot. Currently it's a lot hotter in Baghdad (11oC-32oC) than Melbourne (3oC-16oC), which would also make things more stressful while fasting.
In Melbourne the worst off I think are the year 11 and 12 students who are fasting and completing VCE exams at present. I'm assuming they should be able to get special consideration for that..?
I'll have to e-mail my brother and find out what it's like in Cairo at this time of year.
It's been interesting comparing how Ramadan is celebrated in Iraq to how it's celebrated in my suburb. I'd actually forgotten that Ramadan had started until Saturday night, when we were coming home from Larpa's on Rathdowne St and came straight into a traffic jam on Nicholson St. In front of the mosque. Oh yeah, that's right, people'd be going to the mosque because of Ramadan. For some reason I thought it was later in the month, but then again it moves. I should know, given that I work with S. (and M. and a couple of others from downstairs), but I tend to forget these things.
The family across the street gets together every night (all 15 children, together with offspring) and eats together in the room they've converted the garage into. You can smell the food start cooking around about half an hour before sunset, although I'm certain some families wait to start BBQing the meat until after sunset (too tempting: at least rice/cous cous or tabouli doesn't smell so much while cooking!) You see families walking or driving to the mosque and heading up and down the street. Generally of course the communities are more spread out - the local mosque is not necessarily the mosque that the neighbours attend, given language and other country-of-origin differences.
The biggest difference I think between celebrating in Melbourne and in Iraq at the moment is the season and therefore time needed to fast. While this year is a bit better than the last couple of years (February must suck), we're still in daylight savings and heading towards winter. Melbourne at the moment the civil twilight begins at 05:44 and ends at 20:24. For Baghdad it's 05:56 and 17:35. I sometimes wonder how people who've migrated even further north/south (e.g. Scandinavia, UK, Tasmania) cope when daylight is... well, pretty much 24 hours. Are there special dispensations for this? I suppose at least Melbourne's fairly chilly at the moment, which helps. Last year was very hot during Ramadan, I remember going to a work do the night before it began (due to the uncertainty of when Ramadan actually begins neither S or M were able to come, as we couldn't tell whether or not it would have started on that day or not - and most of us skippys had miscalculated when it was likely to be and thought it was a month later *sigh*) and it was stinking hot. Currently it's a lot hotter in Baghdad (11oC-32oC) than Melbourne (3oC-16oC), which would also make things more stressful while fasting.
In Melbourne the worst off I think are the year 11 and 12 students who are fasting and completing VCE exams at present. I'm assuming they should be able to get special consideration for that..?
I'll have to e-mail my brother and find out what it's like in Cairo at this time of year.
