Folks, it’s that time of year again. The time when we all come together, fast during the day and eat copious amounts of food at night, it’s Ramadan! Ramadan began in Morocco on Monday and I must say it is a very exciting time for many reasons. First of all, I’ll let you all know that yes, I am fasting. Even though Ramadan is a month long, people don’t fast for the entire month. If they did that, a huge group of people would die every year. People fast only during the day and this means no food, no water, nada. So, here’s the schedule: you fast until the futr, the breakfast, which is around 5:45pm. You eat a date and drink some milk (we’ve usually had banana milkshakes) and then people pray. Then you feed your face until you collapse, which is what I literally did during the first futr. There’s a tomato-based chickpea soup called harira, boiled eggs with cumin (yum), and tons of tons of pastries. After you’ve eaten as much as your shrunken stomach can handle, you rest for a little bit and then you go out and socialize with everyone. Then you return home and you eat dinner sometime. For example, my family had a traditional Moroccan dinner at 1:30am. Some families will have dinner a little earlier and then wake up at 4:00am to eat and pray. Luckily I get to sleep in.
Because it is technically illegal for Moroccan to eat in public during daylight during Ramadan, all of the Cafés, the staple of male Moroccan life, are closed. Most of the shops open later in the day than normal. It has been said, more than once, that the average food consumption amount goes up during Ramadan. Who would have ever thought that fasting could actually make you gain weight?

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