Ramazan in Saudi Arabia is marked by a mixture of love for God...and food! A week before Ramazan, there is a mad rush of shoppers to buy groceries. Some supermarkets report as many as 6,000 paying customers per day, and earnings of up to one million Saudi Riyals! At this time, it gets difficult to manoeuvre carts between isles, and often the waiting time at check-out counters exceeds 45 minutes. Once this happens, many customers simply abandon their fully-loaded carts and leave.
During Ramazan, the highest-selling item in supermarkets is oatmeal. “I wondered why everyone was buying porridge, when nobody eats breakfast.” Lloyd, a British general manager of a supermarket told this writer. Saudis make a delicious oat soup with meat and tomatoes. They open iftar with it. Jello and qamar deen (apricot juice) are the next two most sought-after iftar items. (In Pakistani stores, the highest selling items are oil and gram flour).
There is a big demand for ready-made foods, also. Thousands of expatriates don’t have their families or wives to cook for them. Therefore, road-side vendors make a lot of money. One survey of Arbaeen Street in Jeddah showed that meat samboosak (samosa) at SR24 per kilo was the best-selling item, followed by kunaafa (a kind of sweet).
Awad, a Saudi cabbie, said that traffic is so bad an hour before iftar time that he gives up driving during the rush hour. Instead, he sells sobia — a sweet, tangy drink that originated in Makkah centuries ago, and is now rarely seen except in Ramazan. Awad sits on a folding chair next to his taxi, reading a newspaper. “Welcome,” he calls out to approaching customers. “At SR5 per polythene bag, selling sobia is more lucrative and relaxing than driving.”
The mad rush for food continues till sehri time. Street hawkers, five-star hotels and restaurants all try to outdo each other. In each residential area, there are plenty of mosques that are thickly carpeted and air-conditioned. They are usually filled to capacity in Ramazan. Saudis offer taraweeh prayers usually with their whole families. Women and even young children throng the mosques. Most mosques, with the exception of Makkah, offer eight rakats. A majority of Pakistanis flock to the mosques in Pakistani areas where 20 rakats are offered.
A lot of charitable work is also done in Ramazan. Free food is given out in many mosques and parks. Defaulters of loans who are usually jailed, are bailed out by philanthropists. Most Saudis who can afford to, will perform Umrah in the month of Ramazan, as according to a Hadith, it is like doing Haj with Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him). The rush in Haram in the last ten days is even greater than that during Haj.
The downside of Ramazan is the wastage of food. Trash bins overflow with food items. I asked a Saudi friend if they felt remorse at throwing away food. Her answer, “We try not to, but if we have to, we do. Some insect would probably eat it. After all, Allah provides for everyone through various means.” Also, some people treat Ramazan frivolously. There is an almost merry atmosphere at night with people crowding the beaches, specially in Jeddah. Men are seen playing cards and smoking sheesha (hookah). Children light firecrackers that are sold on the beaches illegally or SR10 and 20. Young men and boys play soccer till almost sehri time. Productivity in offices is usually low. The office timings are shortened from eight to six hours. Many establishments follow split timings, that contributes to unproductivity. Many people work from 10am to 2pm.
EID: Eid, by comparison, is a quieter affair. Most government offices close for a week or longer. Private offices give their employees three to four days off. Some years back, even newspapers were not published during the week-long Eid vacations. Now, a skeleton staff takes out a much thinner issue. Most Saudi women and children wear Western attire. For Eid, they easily spend thousands of riyals on clothes. The more traditional women wear long dresses called thobes. Men continue to wear the white thobe. But for Eid, some will put on a bisht over the thobe — a black graduation-like gown with a golden border.
Most Saudis buy a lot of gold jewellry during this month. They also buy new furniture and on Eid day, that is usually a family affair, most Saudi houses smell of Oodh. This is an incense made of wood shavings from an Oodh tree. It is quite expensive. A good quality Oodh can cost around SR500 per kilo!
Eid prayers are held very early in the morning and in big mosques and open grounds. People in the mosques come to offer Fajr prayers and stay on to participate in the Eid prayers. Entire families come to this prayer, even the smallest of children, dressed up in fine clothes.
After prayers, most Saudis (and now even Pakistanis) go to sleep! A Pakistani once told me that he went to meet his Saudi boss right after Eid prayers. Nobody answered the door and after a while, his boss came out with sleepy eyes. My own experience with my Saudi landlord’s family was similar. I went to visit them around 4pm. They were just waking up! They were wearing crumpled house clothes. They offered me some candies and a cup of qehwa with dates (they don’t sweeten the beverage with sugar, so the dates provide the sweetness).
Affluent Saudis usually go overseas to spend Eid, taking advantage of the week-long vacation. Malaysia and Singapore is the number one destination. Pakistanis celebrate Eid with a lot of fervour and tradition. Chand raat is observed in the Pakistani areas in big cities. In Jeddah, for instance, a big crowd of Pakistanis can be seen swarming shops in the Kababish area. They buy henna cones and glass bangles for SR5 or 10 from make-shift stalls that are set outside the shops on big tables. But here, the shopkeeper dare not put bangles on any woman’s hands. He would be out of business!
A couple of boutiques also sell Pakistani clothes. A good outfit costs at least SR500. Most expatriates buy their Eid clothes when they visit Pakistan. “I buy ready-made outfits for my children a day before Eid at the boutique, though it is expensive. Only then can they enjoy chand raat. Expatriate Pakistanis usually spend Eid day visiting friends and eating elaborate meals. Usually, on the second or third day of Eid, they have picnics on the beach if they live in Jeddah and Dammam. Otherwise, they go to parks. You can spot a Pakistani crowd anywhere because there is always someone playing cricket!
Pakistani restaurants do brisk business serving paratha, halwa and cholay for breakfast and biryani for lunch. The bachelor expatriates and those having families in Pakistan bide their time at these joints. Most feel lonely and homesick.
“It’s the worst time to be away from your children,” Ali Khan of Kohat said. Many Pakistanis go to Madina, which is about 425 kilometres from Jeddah and extremely crowded around this time. Everyone misses home and their loved ones. Everyone knows there is no place like Saudi Arabia to spend Ramazan in, and no place like home for Eid!
Ramazan in Saudi Arabia is marked by a mixture of love for God...and food! A week before Ramazan, there is a mad rush of shoppers to buy groceries. Some supermarkets report as many as 6,000 paying customers per day, and earnings of up to one million Saudi Riyals! At this time, it gets difficult to manoeuvre carts between isles, and often the waiting time at check-out counters exceeds 45 minutes. Once this happens, many customers simply abandon their fully-loaded carts and leave.
