Fasting together

Ramadan at Damascus Gate

Can't believe a week has already passed since my last update. Time flies. It's March now and we're in the 1st week of Lent. This year it's a big confluence of calendars: our Lent coincides with the Orthodox Lent and the Muslim Ramadan. So everyone fasts this month. That's solidarity.

Ramadan celebrations are on the way. The cannon is fired at 4.45am to start the fast and at 5.50pm to end the fast. Prior to the start of the fast, every family is up and eating. People go to the mosque and the streets are crowded. But once the cannon fires, everyone goes home to sleep. Then prior to the end of the fast, restaurants and hawkers selling cooked food do very big business. Once the cannon is fired, everyone buys food and goes home to eat. Other shops will close for an hour so the owners can eat.

The snake guy & son

Damascus Gate is a lot more busy after 9pm than last week. The snake guy is there like every Ramadan. He has an albino python which ever since I first saw him, has grown very big. Because it's cold, like 9 degrees, the snakes are very quiet and sleepy. Now the guy's son is out with 2 small pythons as well. People would go and take photos with it.

There're other hawkers at Damascus Gate selling kebap, fruit and toys. Kebap is cheap (15 shekels for a pita with 2 sticks of kebap) so most people can afford. Times are still hard for most of us ... so Catholic, Orthodox or Muslim, we go buy a pita kebap at sunset to break the fast that we all are keeping.