Ramadan, the Muslim festival of fasting – the most important event in the Islamic Calendar – started in Morocco today. The arrival of the crescent moon in the night sky signals the start of 30 days of fasting during which Muslims don’t eat, drink or smoke during the day, eating all their meals before sunrise and after sunset.
Fasting is one of the pillars of the Islamic faith and reminds Muslims of the plight of the poor, sick and needy. Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the 30-day fasting period and is a great celebration throughout the Muslim world. Morocco is one of the last countries in the world that relies on actual sightings rather than a lunar calendar when working out its Ramadan dates…which means one can never be exactly sure when it’s going to start and finish.
Those of you with any experience of the country will immediately recognise how typically Moroccan this is…a big “Ramadan Mubarak” to all our friends!
A couple of months ago a friend of ours in Ounagha (a village about 25km inland from Essaouira) bought 30 beehives, and we bought one too!!! As you can see, beehives in Morocco are not the same as back home – the bees build their nests in long cylinders made of reeds – these are then packed in clay or whatever else you can lay your hands on, and the ends blocked (then carefully removed for harvesting).
Check out these honeycombs (and by the way, lying in a hot field sucking honey straight from the comb is the definition of luxury)…
Next time you describe a human child as a ‘cute kid’, remember what the real thing looks like…