“Your stomach growls, you feel more for the poor and the needy,” says Sam Aboudib, talking about fasting for the month of Ramadan.
Aboudib, a local businessman and also the president of the Slave Lake Muslim Society, is observing Ramadan along with about 17 households in Slave Lake and many millions of Muslims worldwide.
Ramadan, which is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, began on Oct. 15 this year with the first sighting of the crescent moon. During the month, Muslims fast from the break of dawn until sunset and attend nightly prayers known as Taraweeh.
“It makes you a little more spiritual, more God conscious,” says Hanuy Moallem, secretary for the Muslim Society.
Moallem says the first day of the fast is hard. After that, he says, “I find it’s just like skipping lunch.”
He says that keeping the fast for Ramadan is not just about food though.
“Things like back-biting will break the fast,” he says.
It is also necessary to give money to the poor and to practice forgiveness.
“Ramadan is a forgiveness month. Family who haven’t talked, they talk. It’s a good month for everything,” says Aboudib.
The month is especially good for dinner invitations. After sunset, families enjoy big meals together and frequently invite friends over.
“We eat a lot,” says Aboudib.
Both men say that Slave Lake’s non-Muslims are understanding during the fast, although Aboudib’s wife, Iman, says there are sometimes misconceptions.
“Teachers don’t know why the children fast. They think we make them, but it’s because they want to. It’s not obligation until adulthood,” she says.
Because Ramadan follows a lunar calendar, it starts and ends ten days earlier every year. This year it will end around Nov. 14, when it is expected that the first crescent moon will be sighted in November. On that day, Ramadan will end with Eid al fitr, a feast which literally means, “breaking the fast.”

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