Category Archives: Ramadan

Ramadan Mubarak

Once again, Ramadan has snuck up on me. This Book of Days is by no means perfect; we are all learning as we go. Perhaps I’m just saving the perfection for the time when it is a real book, printed and bound. Let’s hope so, anyway. For now, though, during this first night of feasting that followed the first day of fasting of this holy month, please accept this in good spirit: a reprint of last year’s chapter on Ramadan, as well as my greeting for a month of joy and happiness: Ramadan Mubarak! ~ John

 

My grandmother used to talk sometimes about a distant ancestor in our family line who was not Italian but Moroccan, and I loved that something so exotic could be part of the fabric from which we both were woven. It never crossed my mind back then to ask her more about this person, and now of course it’s too late to ask her. I’m older now and I’ve done a good bit of genealogical research on my family, tracing things back as far as the 1700s on my grandmother’s line, and the ancestor from Morocco has yet to turn up. But Italian records are notoriously muddy once you get further back in time than that. It’s a mystery I’ll most likely never solve, but chances are good that Grandma’s story is true, for the Southern Italian city from which our ancestors hail was once, in the 13th century, home to about 60,000 people of North African descent, all Muslims who had been expelled from Sicily by Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor. There have always been refugees, it would seem.

And so they left Sicily and traveled north and settled in Lucera, my maternal grandparents’ hometown, which became known then as Lucaera Saracenorum, or Saracen Lucera. They were Arabs and Berbers from Arabia, Tunisia, and Morocco. Sadly, things eventually did not end well for them, even in Saracen Lucera. We have always been terrible to each other, it would seem (consider much of the current political rhetoric today in our own country). Be that as it may, even if I never find that Moroccan ancestor in my lineage, the cultural influence of these people on the culture of my family and on families throughout Southern Italy is undeniable, especially in local dialects and in the foods we prepare, even after all these centuries.

If the ancestor from Morocco lived in Lucaera Saracenorum, then he would have celebrated Ramadan, which begins tonight, most likely, with the first sighting of the new crescent moon. The start of this month of fasting is never concrete, for it is based on that sighting and this can vary slightly from place to place. Ramadan commemorates the month when Mohammed received the first revelations of the Qu’ran, the holy book of Islam. The observance of Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, with fasting during the daylight hours throughout this month, as well as an increase in prayer and charity. And while Ramadan is a month of fasting, the meals that break the fast each night with the setting sun are known to be quite wonderful and very celebratory––meals that, in some places, can last through the night. Meals flavored, certainly, with some of the same flavors––mint, almond, vinegar, rose water––that were brought by Arabs and Berbers to the tables of Southern Italy in centuries past. A thread alone hasn’t much strength, but a woven fabric is a different story.

Image: One of Lucera’s most famous landmarks, the Castello di Lucera. The building dates to the time of Saracen Lucera, built in 1233. My grandparents and all their ancestors––Italian and Moroccan––lived near this castle. Photograph 2006 Creative Commons.

 

Ramadan Mubarak

Castel of Lucera

My grandmother used to talk sometimes about a distant ancestor in our family line who was not Italian but Moroccan, and I loved that something so exotic could be part of the fabric from which we both were woven. It never crossed my mind back then to ask her more about this person, and now of course it’s too late to ask her. I’m older now and I’ve done a good bit of genealogical research on my family, tracing things back as far as the 1700s on my grandmother’s line, and the ancestor from Morocco has yet to turn up. But Italian records are notoriously muddy once you get further back in time than that. It’s a mystery I’ll most likely never solve, but chances are good that Grandma’s story is true, for the Southern Italian city from which our ancestors hail was once, in the 13th century, home to about 60,000 people of North African descent, all Muslims who had been expelled from Sicily by Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor. There have always been refugees, it would seem.

And so they left Sicily and traveled north and settled in Lucera, my maternal grandparents’ hometown, which became known then as Lucaera Saracenorum, or Saracen Lucera. They were Arabs and Berbers from Arabia, Tunisia, and Morocco. Sadly, things eventually did not end well for them, even in Saracen Lucera. We have always been terrible to each other, it would seem (consider much of the current political rhetoric today in our own country). Be that as it may, even if I never find that Moroccan ancestor in my lineage, the cultural influence of these people on the culture of my family and on families throughout Southern Italy is undeniable, especially in local dialects and in the foods we prepare, even after all these centuries.

If the ancestor from Morocco lived in Lucaera Saracenorum, then he would have celebrated Ramadan, which begins tonight, most likely, with the first sighting of the new crescent moon. The start of this month of fasting is never concrete, for it is based on that sighting and this can vary slightly from place to place. Ramadan commemorates the month when Mohammed received the first revelations of the Qu’ran, the holy book of Islam. The observance of Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, with fasting during the daylight hours throughout this month, as well as an increase in prayer and charity. And while Ramadan is a month of fasting, the meals that break the fast each night with the setting sun are known to be quite wonderful and very celebratory––meals that, in some places, can last through the night. Meals flavored, certainly, with some of the same flavors––mint, almond, vinegar, rose water––that were brought by Arabs and Berbers to the tables of Southern Italy in centuries past. A thread alone hasn’t much strength, but a woven fabric is a different story.

Image: One of Lucera’s most famous landmarks, the Castello di Lucera. The building dates to the time of Saracen Lucera, built in 1233. My grandparents and all their ancestors––Italian and Moroccan––lived near this castle. Photograph 2006 Creative Commons.

 

Ramadan Mubarak

Arabesque

I had dinner at The Pelican on Friday night. Those of you who know me well know this is my typical Friday routine. Tara and Sami are the Pakistani couple who own The Pelican. It’s a small place in Downtown Lake Worth, very easy to pass by unnoticed should you be driving down Lake Avenue, with just a few tables and a counter and shutters that open into the restaurant on cool nights. They’re only open for breakfast and lunch typically, but on Friday nights, they turn off the TV and the overhead fluorescents, switch on the spotlights and occasionally some Indian music and serve amazing dinners fragrant with the spices of their homeland.

This past Friday I went, knowing it would be the last dinner I’d have there for a while, for they’re never open for Friday night dinner during Ramadan. When it’s Ramadan, which began here on Saturday evening this year, Tara and Sami and their family fast all day, from sunrise to sunset. They break the fast each evening after sunset with a delicious meal, and during Ramadan, they like that meal to be at home, rather than at the restaurant, and I admire that they close up for this monthlong observance (even though I’ll miss those dinners).

Ramadan is the month when Mohammad received the revelations of the Quran. Its observance is one of the five pillars of Islam, and observance includes not just fasting but also increased prayer and charity and a general focus on goodness.

The start of Ramadan is based on the sighting of the crescent moon and so its beginnings each year are never concrete, and it can vary slightly from place to place. Even over the course of the month, it is fascinating, I think, that even the times of fasting each day vary, for it truly reflects the sun’s journey, now that the solstice has passed, toward the southern sky and helps us appreciate the ever changing shift in daylight hours. In Karachi, Pakistan, which could be where Tara and Sami are from, on the first day of Ramadan the sun rose at 4:17 AM and set in the evening at 7:26 PM. By the end of Ramadan, the amount of sunlight will have decreased by 24 minutes, mostly in the morning, as the sun rises later and sets earlier in the day. Ramadan is a lunar observance, but by its end we are that much closer to the balance of the autumnal equinox and the next solstice at Midwinter.

Ramadan may be a month of fasting, but the meals that break the fast each evening can be really wonderful and very celebratory. I remember an NPR story from many years ago about Ramadan in Iran; the foods that were being described, even over the radio, sounded so good, I wanted to taste them all. Some of these meals, they said, can last through the night. It is a month of patience, humility, and spirituality… but also a month of good food. “Ramadan Mubarak!

 

I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I shot the image above at the Morocco pavilion at Epcot a few years back. How very uninspired of me, to get my cultural experience about a place like that through a whitewashed corporate experience. Nonetheless, family lore says that my maternal grandmother’s lineage holds a distant mix of Italian and Moroccan, so I was pretty fascinated with what I saw there, even if it was Disneyfied.