Sa’ur, Sa’ur! Sa’ur, Sa’ur Sa’ur, Sa’ur, shouts the imam into the speakers from the mosque. I don’t need to look at my alarm to know that it is around 2.30AM. Sa’ur, Sa’ur, I hear the 2nd mosque starting. I wanna turn around, close my eyes again and sleep, but I hear the 3th mosque starting with the solat subuk (morning prayer)and the drums that already all night where going...
It’s the
holy month of Ramadan and even though not everybody is fasting it everybody has
to do with it and has influence on the daily live during this month. Also for
me as a bule (white person) as well.
So as you
could read it people wake up at the call of the mosque for their Sa’ur (meal in
the night) so they eat before their solat subuk(morning prayer) and the day of
fasting begins. Fasting means no eating and no drinking from sunrise till
sunset. Exceptions are made for sick people, pregnant women or when women have
their period. So you can imagine this aint easy since dry season has started
and the sun is burning merciless.
So out of respect
I don’t eat or drink on the street or in presence of my Moslim friends, to not
bring them in temptation. Restaurants like MCDonalds taped off their windows so
that you still can eat if you don’t fast but it won’t be seen. Most of the
warung(little restaurant at the side of the road) and kaki lima (the 5 legged
cart at the side of the road where you can buy nasi goreng or small snacks) are
closed during most of the time of the day. But open their business around 3PM,
when people wake up from ‘catching up’ nap and starting to buy food. So they
can buka puasa(open the fast, as they say)at 6PM. All the warung are full
packed with people and as soon the clock strickes 6, people buka puasa with
kolak (a drink of sweet potato, banana, water of coconut, sugar & vanilla),
before they eat anything else. People like to open the fast together with
family and friends. Then at 7pm they have Solat Tarawe, which is the special
prayer during Ramadan. It starts at 7pm and can continue till 9pm.
Another
tradition here is fireworks. Specially the kids and teenagers like to do the
fireworks.
During the
day the roads are a bit more quiet, which I like. Finally driving my motorbike
without traffikjam and going to places can be done in 15 minutes instead of a
minimum of 30 minutes. Although later in the month when everybody starts being
tired it can be dangerous, cauze the people are sleepy and don’t have that much
concentration anymore. It gives dangerous situations and lot of accidents. Besides
if you die during Ramadan it’s the best that can happen to you, cuz you’re
going straight to heaven.
Anyways this
month is a very good month for the sellers of the markets. Supermarkets and
local pasars make huge finances out of this. All prices has been gone up. For
most of the things you pay twice the price! Imagine..
But still
everybody is willing to pay. And during this month it will be a lot about nice
and yummie food even though it’s fasting time. So after Idul Fitri, the closure
of Ramadan, the prices will go down, but that still takes a while. And some
sellers on the local markets don’t go down with their prices. Luckily the government
has some rules and inspections. Still Indonesia experiences 10% increase of the
prices of products every year!
So as this
week is the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan with not too much sleep for
everybody and I still have a month to go. I’d better go to bed now and catch
some sleep till the next morning’s Sa’ur call..
