Een interessant artikel over ramadan in BiH! Hier is de link naar de website
Ramadan traditions steadfast in BiH (SETimes.com) en voor het gemak ook het artikel hieronder:
Ramadan traditions steadfast in BiH
25/08/2011
The customs of celebrating Ramadan are different throughout BiH, but the belief in a divine command remains the same.
By Bedrana Kaletović for Southeast European Times in Sarajevo -- 25/08/11
Men in Bratunac share the Iftar meal. [Bedrana Kaletovic/SETimes] |
Jusuf Mehmedovic hurries along the stone pathway -- he clutches Ramadan bread in one hand, his grandson Ahmen's hand in the other. They are heading towards the mosque where they are going to pray and then finish the day with the iftar meal.
This is Mehmedovic's 55th year fasting Ramadan and each one, he says, is more precious than the previous.
"When I was 7, my father took me to the Mosque to pray [with him]. He then explained what Ramadan means, why people fast and what the purpose of not eating and drinking anything from the sunrise until the sunset is," Mehmedovic told SETimes.
This Ramadan is special for Mehmedovic, because it is his grandson's first year of fasting. They are in a hurry to get to the mosque today, in order to see the end of another Ramadan day with the rest of the believers in Bratunac, a town in northeastern Bosnia.
"In these parts, it is a tradition for the believers to eat iftar together in mosques. Everybody comes before the prayers, chats with their neighbours, and then join the prayers and a common feast. First, the men eat on the second floor of the mosque, and when they finish, the women eat," Effendi Admir Velic told SETimes.
This northeastern BiH tradition dates back to the time when many houses didn't have electricity, but waited in candlelight for cannons on the hill to announce the end of fasting. In order to share and eat together whatever each had to offer, the villagers would come together at the mosque and do the iftar there.
People do not live in famine as before, and the cannon are only a distant memory, but the commoniftars have remained part of the Ramadan tradition.
"Iftar is first done with dates and water, followed by traditional meals, among which the Ramadan bread is unavoidable. All this can be eaten in one's own house, but it is much tastier when we all go together, the rich and the poor, family and neighbours," points out Emina Husic.
After iftar, the believers do not go home immediately. Religion students read suitable texts or sing songs with religious motifs. All believers can join in these festivities, regardless of gender.
Though the celebration of Ramadan has social significance, many believers are more interested in the spiritual aspects.
"Ramadan means for me the doing of good deeds, life in accordance with God and neighbours, and this is easiest to understand once we unify our prayers with a commoniftar. This is how my grandfathers did it and how I do it now," Vahidin Hajdarevic of Bratunac told SETimes.
"Ramadan is not the month when we show off how rich we are, but a time when we should think about those who have less. We are reminded of this by our youngest believer," says Velic.
It is this help offered to the sick and the poor that is one of the main tasks of Muslims. They givesadaka (help in the form of money or food) to those who do not have enough. The goal of Ramadan is to bring joy to every home, rich or poor.
This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.
