To keep it simple Ramadan is THE Muslim holiday, it goes on for a whole month. You can do more research if you don't know much about it, or want to know the religious aspects of it. This is how it appears to me:
1) Muslims don't eat or drink during the day.
Exceptions are pretty broad for this, ranging from if you are traveling to if you just plain old don't feel well. This means no restaurants are open during the day! What a sad but healthy time for a pregnant lady. I can't get Burger King when I want it, and by the time it opens I have talked myself out of the craving and have eaten a bunch of veggies at home.
2) Extra prayers happen.
Muslims pray five times a day. In Saudi Arabia the mosques broadcast the prayers over speakers. We live right next to one, it can be loud. I am pretty used to it happening and sleep through the early prayer, but now there are extra prayers. At about 9PM they start the normal evening one. During Ramadan though, it goes on and on and on as they read parts of the Koran for about an hour. Now, in this last week of the holiday, they do extra prayers that start about 1AM and go for what seems like an hour. I am sure this is pleasant and a reflective time for Muslims, but this 1 in the morning thing has me crabby.
3) People here stay up ALL NIGHT.
That is why the 1AM thing is just fine with them. Since they are not eating or drinking during the day, lots of people have work off, so they sleep all day (cheaters). The Malls and everything are open till 3:30 in the morning for Ramadan. We will go out for shopping at about 9:30 (the Koran reading time) to catch slow traffic. We leave the shops at about 11:30PM, just as everyone starts to come! Little kids and old people filling up Ikea at midnight! It is an unbelievable thing to me. I have participated though, we had our 8 year old neighbor boy with us bowling and playing arcade games till 2AM, totally acceptable. Traffic is awful too, everyone is out and everyone is visiting Jeddah. I can't decide if it is a bad or good thing we came into this from 8 time zones over, Mariam is keeping up a little too well with this night/party life.
4) They buy a lot of things and eat a ton of sweets.
Stores are packed with sales and customers. Extra aisles are put up at the grocery store for baked goods and candy. Hey, sounds a lot like Christmas... only for a whole month!
5) Decorations get put up around shops and all over packaging.
I guess there is not an official theme, but most places have a little extra blue, white, silver and gold around. Moons and stars also show up everywhere as well as fancy lanterns. Places smell nicer too, lots of extra incense are burnt it seems like. I have seen some houses with white christmas lights up and some neighborhood streets with big strings of light bulbs zig zagging from building to building. Some small neighborhood restaurants also put a little red and blue patterned tent out front, so they can better serve people when eating time comes around.
An example of a Ramadan Pepsi can
6) As well as eating extra candy, they have huge dinners every night.
To break the day's fast at sunset Muslims typically eat dates and have a little drink of milk or water. Then comes the heaps of food. Michael, Mariam and I were invited to a real "Iftar" dinner here, hosted by one of Michael's friend's families. I will write a whole separate post about this experience to save this one from being unbearably long. It was a lot of food. I asked the one english speaking woman in the room if dinner was this big every night, and she laughingly replied, "yes"! They also eat a very large meal just before morning prayers and fasting starts again (or just before bed for a lot of folks).
7) Everyone seems extra nice after the sun goes down.
Full bellies and good times with family and friends lead to happy people. They shoot fireworks into the sea, fill up the amusement parks, malls, and playgrounds, and give extra money to poor people. It is better to not try and interact with the outside during the day. People are hurried and irritable from fasting, they can smell funny too. Also, a fasting driver at 6PM is just about as safe as a mildly drunk driver. We have just been staying in getting a lot of things done and wasting a lot of time on the internet. Michael starts work back up next week when this is all over.
Our neighbor kids put this Happy Ramadan sign up downstairs by the door. I thought it was cute so I got them some gummy bears.
8) To finish it all off they have like a bonus three day holiday.
Eid Al-Fitr. Here is an informative article (with recipes!) http://en.news.maktoob.com/20090000998672/Eid_Al-Fitr_Ramadan_s_sweet_ending/Article.htm
That is my experience with Ramadan so far. Totally not a technical, religious, or probably even entirely correct interpretation, but again my experience. It has been heartwarming and also aggravating at times, but over all very interesting to see a whole country take part in something like this holiday.
