They say one of the biggest changes you have to overcome when moving to a new country is culture shock. Different languages, different religions, different outlooks, different customs – it can all be, well, quite shocking to the system initially and especially for a Scottish lass like me.
You see, while I will punch, kick and scratch anyone that doesn’t agree that Scottish people are the friendliest people on planet Earth (like, duh?), one thing our country lacks is diversity in our population makeup. In fact, it was only from writing this blog that I discovered that in Scotland, Muslims constitute only 1.45% of the population. And, in the UK, they only make up 4.4% of the entire population.
For myself – and I’m sure for many others – coming from a country that is proud of its welcoming nature, I found these percentages shocking. However, it also allowed me to breathe a (slight) sigh of relief for my ignorance to the Muslim culture when I first moved to Dubai – a movement date which also coincided with the commencement of Ramadan.
Now if, like myself, you didn’t pay attention in Religious Education at school and instead sent messages to your friends on BBM – those were the days – about the latest high school drama then you probably have little to no knowledge about what Ramadan is. And, when I landed in Dubai, I suddenly regretted my lack of attention I gave to Miss McCluskey and wished I could BBM her apologising.
However, being thrown into the Dubai life as I was, I soon found out all about this religious event.
In summary – Blackberry’s away – Ramadan is the holy month of fasting for Muslims, which begins and ends with the appearance of the crescent moon (more on that later). The fasting is viewed as a time for Muslims to practice self-restraint and is carried out between dawn and dusk, with Muslims gathering with friends and family to break their fast with a meal which is called an iftar.
Another important thing to note is that the date of Ramadan changes every year, with it beginning 10-12 days earlier due to it following the Muslim calendar.
While, there is much more detail that I could go into on Ramadan, I feel like this covers the main points and it would be an R.E. lesson that my old teacher would be proud of. Mainly because the most interaction with her subject that she ever got from pupils was, ‘wits the point in this?’ Yip, Scottish pupil responses at their finest…
Anyway, while you are not obliged to participate in Ramadan, something that you do have to participate in is Eid al-Fitr – the public holiday announced by the moon committee to mark the beginning of the celebrations to the end of Ramadan. Which was such a shame as I so wanted to work…
However, for me, this Eid was going to be extra special with my two friends from my unayyyyyy days – one now living in Abu Dhabi and the other in Qatar – both coming through to truly celebrate the holiday in style. The only problem was, had we cracked the code, and figured out the inner workings of the moon committee?
You see, another thing you need to know about Eid is that the actual precise date of this public holiday isn’t usually announced until a few days before, along with the length of the holiday not being known until this time either. Some years it has been two days and some years it has been five days. However, there is always a rough estimation of when the holiday will be.
Therefore, every night of the days ahead of my friends arrival, I went out on to my balcony and stared at the moon. Was it crescent? Was it only slightly crescent? Who knew. And I wondered if somewhere the moon committee were staring at the moon in their starry robes – as this is how I like to imagine them – having the same debates.
But, just as I was about to throw my telescope over the balcony in defeat, my phone buzzed with notifications from several WhatsApp groups. The moon committee had pulled through! They had announced the sighting of the crescent moon and the beginning of Eid on the dates that my friends arrived, along with three days off being granted by the UAE government. I couldn’t believe it; we had cracked the code. This also meant that it was time to crack open the prosecco for what was definitely shaping up to be a messy Eid holiday, with our plans consisting of brunch, followed by brunch, moving on to brunch and ending with brunch.
I mean, what other social activities could three Scottish girls possibly do? Therefore, with prosecco in hand, I lifted my glass up to the crescent moon before sipping what I knew would be the first of many, many, many more alcoholic beverages. What other way would we celebrate Eid, right?
