A (Very Basic) Ramadan Primer (according to my sample of 1 Pakistani)..

Not exactly a traditional Pakistani suhoor, but we make our own traditions here.

Today is the fourth day of fasting for the month of Ramadan. It can be a little misleading to say that Ramadan is a "month of fasting" because sometimes people think that means we can't eat anything for an entire month! That's not true, we do still eat and drink during the month, it's just WHEN.

In Ramadan, we fast from dawn to dusk. That means that we wake up before the sun rises and eat breakfast (called suhoor or sehri in Arabic/Urdu) up until the beginning of the dawn. Sometimes that means shouting to each other "Hurry up! We only have six minutes left!" and we stuff our faces with cereal and fruit. M has been known to pour his piping hot tea into his saucer to cool it down faster so that he can drink it all before the time of sunrise.

Then, still before the sun rises, we make our usual morning prayer and then usually go back to sleep. Then we spend all day fasting, which means we abstain for all food and drink until the sun sets. Actually fasting is supposed to mean abstaining from other things too, including smoking, backbiting, and even sex.

After the sun sets, we have a fast-breaking meal called Iftar. Sometimes we invite our friends and enjoy this together at an Iftar party, or sometimes we're invited to one of their parties. We break our fast first with a date and a glass of water, and then the iftar meal usually consists of all the traditional Pakistani iftar appetizers like pakoras, samosas, chaats and fruits, or even soup. After eating (/gorging) on all the appetizers, we make the sunset prayer. Sometimes we eat dinner right after that and sometimes we eat later in the evening. It depends on how full of pakoras we are.

In the evenings during the month of Ramadan, we attended special prayers called Taraweeh prayers. At these prayers, a portion of the Quran is read every day so that by the end of the month, we've listened to it in its entirety. Sometimes M or I will stay home with the baby because they're so late at night, but luckily our local mosque has a lot of options with respect to offering childcare or having taraweeh prayers at different times and locations, so sometimes we're both able to go.

At the end of the month of Ramadan, there is a religious holiday called Eid-al-Fitr when we attended a special congregational prayer in the early morning and then spend all day eating and visiting family and friends. In Pakistani traditions, new clothes are also very important on Eid. Kids also usually get money (or sometimes, although rarely, gifts) that is called Eidy.

Because I've only celebrated 6।5 years of Eids, I feel like I still qualify for Eidy!

The mountain of dishes after an Iftar party we threw on Sunday. I still haven't found the bottom of the sink.