Well, I believe only Amer and I are Muslims here but why now.

Eid ul Fitr Mubarak to everyone.

Is this the end of Ramadan?

yea ... ended on saturday ...

add me, Eid Mubarak!

did you celebrate it today or yesterday?

Eid Mubarak to you too Hans ..

Are you gonna go pray? I'm skipping. Need to pick brother up in a bit.

celebrated yesterday, prayed yesterday. Finished fasting on friday

Aaaaaaaaah

Did you both really fast all the way through?

out of 29, i done about 20

I usually fast all the way oratleast 2/3rds. This year i skipped completely .. multiple reasons ...

cant you not eat from sunrise to sunset or something like that?

I have a couple of Muslim friends. Only one of them does it all the way through, the others usually don't do it at all.

Coasterman, during ramazan, you cant eat, drink or have sex during sunrise to sunset.

Thats the basis but there a million other things involved as well, not just that. If people are interested, I'll write about it ... mainly, Islam teaches you to be good the whole year round but during ramzan, its principles are enforced to an even higher degree.

What I want to know is...when exactly does it start?

I don't know what to say, because it's nothing I know anything of, so hopefully it's a good time. If anyone wants to go into detail of what it is, I'll gladly listen.

The Muslim calender goes according to the moon. So the muslim year in some ways is shorter by 10 or so days. Every year, the month of ramazan moves those many days back ... Eid starts right after the end of the month .. i forget what this month is called

Congrats everyone, and I hope this ushers in a productive, healthy, and happy year for y'all. I've said it to bABA when I was fasting, so now I'll say it to everyone. I have serious amounts of respect for anyone that even holds this up for a week more-or-less a month. Me? I had to fast for a brief 26 hours and I was already dying and mourning my existance.

Good Luck in the New Year,

-Dolce

So it doesn't even stay in the same season?

nope ... thats actually one of the points of the lunar calender ... you should be able to do this while performing your normal activity (cept a few things ofcourse where there are complete exceptions)

While winter is cold, its short. I'm dreading ramazan hitting summer here!! the fast becomes tooooo long

That's the reason why I asked

I mean in the winter, especially around December/January, it is not that bad, as the days are short and nights are long, but around May-July......

in pakistan it was easier as the summer day doesnt become that long ..

but I know places like England its trying .... the days there are toooooooo long.

ive havent encountered a ramadan month in summer yet here, but in a few years time though. . . .

Here is a good explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan

A couple of my friends from Bangladesh (living in NYC) were observing it also... Some with greater, some with lesser success... :wink:

Thanks for the link. Some interesting stuff in there.

After they clashed this year I think Divali won.