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Or Selat Selamat Hari Raya! — for the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.
The world changes, and the New Yorker publishes an Irish-American ex-Catholics’ “Confessions of a Ramadan Rookie“:
… In shorthand descriptions of Ramadan, it’s sometimes said that the fast lasts from sunrise to sunset. That’s not true. That would be easy! It actually begins at the first ray of dawn, or, as it says in the Koran, “when the white thread of day becomes distinct from the blackness of night.” On Day One this year, New York City time, sunrise occurred at 5:42 A.M.—a civilized hour at which to finish breakfasting. But dawn came at 4:10. On Day One, the fast lasted over sixteen hours; Day Thirty, this Saturday, will be a breezy fifteen. My father-in-law jokes that, depending on what time of year Ramadan falls, Saudi princes find excuses to spend the month in either Patagonia or Scandinavia, if not the poles themselves, to enjoy the shortest possible days of sacred abstemiousness….
In contrast to some other fasting traditions, Ramadan is intended primarily for focus and elevation, not for penance and atonement. It’s not about mortification of the flesh or otherwise beating yourself up. Around the middle of the month, though, it occurred to me that, despite successfully abstaining from all food and drink, I was only meeting the bare minimum requirements of the fast. During Ramadan, Muslims are also expected to refrain from gossip and complaining, to avoid anger and lust, to increase what should already be a high level of charitability. Fasting was the easy part. I liked to think of myself as someone who was slow to speak ill of people, and for whom generosity was a reflex, but the discipline of the month revealed to me that this was just not the case. I thought of my father, who always had single dollar bills ready in his pocket to hand out to anyone who asked as we walked around Detroit. I thought of a Muslim I know who makes turkey sandwiches every morning during Ramadan, as though he’s preparing his lunch as usual, and then passes them out to the hungry. I’d been focussed on the fast’s physical challenges, but it dawned on me that Ramadan is really about developing new habits, of thought, action, routine. The extremity of the test is what it makes it so vivid…
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What else is on the agenda for the start of the weekend?
raven
No Olympics, 2 weeks until football. I really have to do some home improvement this weekend!
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Sign posted on Facebook recently:
the Conster
@raven:
I hate that no Olympics thing. They were all my friends that I looked forward to seeing every day, and now they’re all gone and I miss them. The Red Sox are a joke and it’s too hot to care about football. It’s a first world problem, I know, but it’s my first world problem.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: teehee! The stories I could tell.
TheMightyTrowel
@the Conster: Dudes, relax, the Paralympics starts soon (says she who has a friend on one of team GB’s coaching teams)!
amk
the myth of cereal bars as healthy snack busted.
Triassic Sands
There’s an article in the NY Times about Obama’s relative lack of lower court judicial nominations compared with the first terms of Clinton and Bush the Worst President Ever.
This sentence is just downright depressing:
JPL
@TheMightyTrowel: When they were in Atlanta, I was fortunate enough to go to the opening ceremony and a few events. It would be nice to see more coverage.
Phylllis
Last day at the beach in Panama City. 50% Chance of train today, so we’re gonna hang by the pool and get pleasantly tipsy on strawberry daiquiris.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL: I’ll bet a lot of us could. I sent it to the guy I carpool with under the subject line “this is actually for (his wife’s name”) and he replied with “that hit closer to home than you know!” so now I’m looking forward to Monday’s commute so he can tell stories from the other side ;-)
JPL
Anne, If you are around, front page this..
blogs.ajc.com/mike-luckovich/
According to MSM, it’s true.
the Conster
@Phylllis:
Nice plan. I’m heading to the Rhode Island shore to spend some time with an old friend who just split from his Brahmin WASP wife of 34 years, and who is with his new, younger, heavier, blonder, louder, pot smoking girlfriend. When you’re in your mid-50s and long time married, it’s really interesting to watch someone you’ve known most of your life canoodling and kissy facing with someone else, when that someone else is the exact opposite of aforementioned wife.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
I love the bite-shaped chunk out of the elephant’s ear à la Tyson-Holyfield. Nice touch.
Luckovich just gets better and better. Took me a while to warm up to him when he first joined the AJC, I missed Doug Marlette so much, but i love him now.
Phylllis
@Phylllis: Rain, not train. Damn auto-correct.
Linda Featheringill
Happy Eid to all celebrants everywhere!
Maude
@the Conster:
There was man and woman sitting on a bench by a river. they were both in their 50’s. He said that if they went fishing, he’d clean the fish for her. I bet a year later it would be clean your own fish.
Amir Khalid
Um, that’s Selamat Hari Raya.
But the thought is very kind. Eid greetings to all at Ballon Juice, too.
red dog
@raven: Niner fan here and you and I have the same schedule including plumping the pillows in the man-cave and kegerator restocking.
pseudonymous in nc
Eid Mubarak. The BBC covered the task of maintaining the fast for Muslims living in the northern part of Finland, where right now there’s 21 hours of daylight.
There was no US coverage of the Paralympics lined up until three days ago; now NBC’s going to offer four hours on NBCSN and a 90 minute round-up on NBC proper — on a Sunday during NFL hours. That’s a bit shameful, but apparently inspirational stories of disabled athletes don’t sell commercials and need to be buried in the schedule.
Conversely, it looks as if all the events are going to sell out their tickets for the first time ever.
Calouste
@pseudonymous in nc: I read somewhere that the most tickets sold for a Paralympics was 100,000, and that they were now looking at 2 million.