Teen Perspectives on a Holy Month of Charity and Fasting
by Gazelle Zerafati, a participant in last year’s Suburban West Walking the Walk group
 Ramadan (pronounced: RAAM-uh-daan) is the ninth month of the Arabic year. Because the Arabic calendar is based on the lunar year, which is approximately 11 days shorter than the solar year, the exact dates of Ramadan differ each year. This year, however, due to the 11 missing days in the lunar calendar, Ramadan will instead begin eleven days earlier, on September 1st, and end on October 1st. This cycle of changing dates repeats year after year, until, after thirty years, Ramadan will return to where it had been thirty years before.
“Although my mother’s cooking is always delicious, I never appreciate it quite as much as I do after a long day of fasting.”
This cycle affects not only when Ramadan starts, but also when the fasting starts and ends during a day. In the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims worldwide abstain from food and drink starting at sunrise, and break the fast when the sun sets at the end of the day. The times for sunrise and sunset are calculated and set into a chart, which worshippers can obtain from their local mosque or off the internet. I remember taking our family’s copy and sticking it to our “fridge” each year, and wishing each year that the sun would rise just a little later in the day, and that the sun would set just a little earlier. As the cycle brings Ramadan closer and closer to summertime, when the days are longest in the year, the time for fasting during the day becomes longer and longer. Fasting during the summer months is especially arduous, and requires great discipline.
Ramadan is meaningful to Muslims for many reasons, the fast is an especially significant aspect of the month. Fasting during Ramadan is a sort of mental and spiritual exercise, whereby people gain discipline and self-control. By refraining from food, a person gains control over his or her mind and actions, and can thereby avoid having negative thoughts or doing things which might upset others. Also, while fasting, people are given the opportunity to experience what needy people feel all the time. Although my mother’s cooking is always delicious, I never appreciate it quite as much as I do after a long day of fasting.
The holy month, however, is not solely based upon the fast, because not everybody can participate. People with health issues, the elderly, pregnant women, as well as those who are ill or traveling are excused from partaking in the fast because of the inconvenience it might cause them. But these people do not miss out on the true meaning of Ramadan; another major theme of the month is charity and goodwill, which could mean donating food, clothes, or money to the needy, doing volunteer work, or simply being helpful and showing kindness to those around you. But for me, the spirit of charity is most evident on the very last day of Ramadan, called Eid ul-Fitr, where families in the community contribute towards and share a huge feast, and all the children receive gifts of money from the adults.
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