This is a month when we think about many things, such as contemplating our spiritual path, but it also brings in a lot of memories.
Hamed Al Harthi tells us about his childhood memories of the beautiful month of Ramadhan. Hamed has retired now and time is under his control, but he maintains plans for the day with dedicated hours for fitness.
Every time the holy month comes, the first thing that comes to his mind is how his parents used to prepare for Ramadhan much ahead of the month.
“In our generation, our parents used to prepare things weeks before Ramadhan. This includes buying household necessities like special spices and preparing them, grinding those that needed grinding and then eventually, putting all those things in bottles."
"I'm sure those from the current generation, with the current lifestyle, those things don't happen anymore,” reflected Hamed.
Hamed noted that because everything is ready-made now and available for convenient purchase at the stores, it's no longer a family bonding activity.
"The thing about store-bought spices, personally, is that they don't taste as good as those prepared by mothers. I'm just of the opinion that the preparation has become commercialised. I remember that whenever the mother-made spices are put into porridge, the porridge just really tasted special," Hamed said.
"It was a different time. The things we used to get from the market, it's just not the same that we found around conveniently now. These are the things that I remember about Ramadhan of the old," he said.
For a lot of people like Hamed, Ramadhan is a truly special occasion centred around faith.
Their parents had educated them early on about the different customs and traditions during Ramadhan. At a young age, they've come to understand the importance of sighting the moon.
"As kids, we were involved in our own way. Our parents have taught us that sighting the moon signifies the beginning of the holy month so it became a fun activity for us children."
He shared, “We would go out and look for the moon, and the minute we spotted it, we would run back home and tell our parents - look we have brought you the moon! When we were small, we believed it. We believed the moon came running with us.”
Hamed noted that other than the faith element of the Ramadhan, the month is also a month of passing along important cultural lessons
“I remember, for example, at night people would be walking around with drums, hitting the drums, conveying to people when it is time to wake up. In those days people slept well and woke up for the meal before sunrise," he shared.
As a child, it was hard to understand why there was so much commotion and why everyone was being woken up for food. Hamed said that it becomes an important part of one's growing-up phase to be awake so early to a kitchen full of food.
“I just ate because I was told to eat, but I didn't understand. Later on, I came to understand, okay, this is suhoor, so you have to wake up and have food at that time. And also like our parents used to bring all of us in one room, and then they would narrate the intentions of fasting and then we repeated it,” remembered Hamed.
The intentions were said one day before Ramadan, “Like telling us we have to fast 29 or 30 days, depending on the sighting of the moon and all that. Today looking back he said maybe you do not have to say that as long as we have good intentions.
Hamed is noticing that this important part of one's childhood is no longer being passed along. It has become convenient for people to stay up late nowadays, wait for suhoor, do their morning prayers and then go to sleep.
"In the past, people go to sleep and make it a habit to wake up for suhoor," he shared.
Hamed said there are also things he loves about being brought up the way his parents did.
“The older generation has so much dedication for Ramadhan. Everyone said together, ‘I intend to fast the days which I miss in case I was ill or something.’ It was like to remind us it was an obligation. An obligation is a commitment that's going through Ramadhan. Now we still get this message, but through colleagues, through WhatsApp and all that,” he pointed out.
Hamed also shared that he loves the neighbourly spirit of the olden times remembering that every household prepared their dishes and always shared the food with their neighbours. The practice of sharing food among different families was practised widely but today, only some villages do it and not as big as how it used to be.
“Before it was also like an obligation. If you make food, it's not only for you. It's also for your neighbours — maybe three or four neighbours who are around you," he said.
"Because everyone shared what they have, as a child, you eagerly await what your neighbours have prepared and it was quite exciting to find different food being prepared and that you can taste it," he said.
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