If you’re looking at the worldwide trending topics on Twitter right now and you see that phrase and have no idea what it means, I have bad news for you: it’s Creeping Shariah in action. Nah, I’m kidding (FOX News disagrees). Ramadan Mubarak means “Ramadan Congrats,” basically.
Muslims worldwide are using the phrase to wish each other a blessed (and easy) Ramadan. For those unfamiliar with the term, Ramadan is one of the Islamic months (based on a lunar calendar, so it moves up 10 Gregorian calendar days a year). During this approximately 30-day month (again, the precise number of days depends on when the new moon is sighting, signalling the start of the next Islamic month of Sha’baan), Muslims abstain from food, drink, smoking, and sex between the hours of sunrise and sunset.
It’s kind of hilarious to me how all my happily married Muslim friends are always bummed about the no-sex part. :P
I mean, most of us have been fasting since we were kids, starting with one day in the month, a couple days every month, and progressively adding more until we were used to it, so the no food and water part is easy.
But for the married folks, the no-sex part is a bummer, especially since the fast starts at around 4AM and ends around 8:15, and after you break the fast everyone has to run off to Tarawih (special prayers every night in Ramadan that can often take around 2 hours to complete), and then you have to snatch at least a couple hours of sleep before you wake up early again the next day to scarf down a meal before 4AM.
It leaves very little time for intimacy during the non-fasting hours, and it’s always hilarious to me how my married friends always seem to be a little on edge. :P Bahahaha.
Outstanding.
Anyway, if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook or Goodreads or my LJ book blog (all links are on the right; feel free to friend me or whatever – that’s why I have all the links up) you’ll probably notice my kinda-sorta-absence.
I will still be doing my best to post on my blog as usual, and I will be using FB and Twitter to link to my blog posts, but there will be basically no social posts or tweets not related to my blog, because in Ramadan we’re not supposed to waste our time on things that aren’t related to Islam, basically.
(Work and visiting friends and housework don’t count, obviously – I’m referring to things we don’t have to do, like listening to music or watching TV or playing Mahjongg Dimensions, which is this game on the AARP website that I am hopelessly addicted to.)
Plus, one of my Ramadan goals, aside from no music and VERY little FB/tweeting (again, pretty much only for my blog or to answer the very few tweets I get that I do not instigate), is to talk less.
OH HAHA VERY FUNNY.
>:(
Wait. None of you actually started making fun of me with the obligatory 1980s’-sitcom-joke comments like “Oh, like THAT’LL happen.”
…My other Ramadan goal is to not flip out so much.
:|
OH LIKE THAT’LL HAPPEN.
There. Beat you nerds to the punch. How do you like them eggrolls, Mr. Goldstone?
Anyway, Ramadan Mubarak to all my Muslim friends and followers and the random Interwebber who found this blog while looking up eggplants or garden gnomes.
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