As the holy month of Ramadan continues I will have additional posts which relate to this special time of the year. With today’s post I wish to share a Ramadan tradition that one Saudi family has had for more than 25 years. The tradition started with the patriarch (eldest male family member) of the family. Each year on the first day of Ramadan he would share a special joke with all the male members of the extended family. The joke never changed but was simply retold year after year. Over time it began to feel like Ramadan had not officially started until the patriarch share the joke.
The patriarch passed away 14 years ago but his joke lives on. Now the eldest Uncle in the family has taken on the tradition of calling the male family members to share the joke. And the joke – it has never changed. It is still the exact same joke.
Because this joke is a special and private family tradition in respect the joke itself will not be shared. However this tradition does raise the question, what other special and unique family traditions are YOU aware of that families do for Ramadan?
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Salaams Carol:
Oh, come on … share the joke, lol!
was not aware of such tradition – its nice to know
One tradition that we abide by is having some Pakora’s. Opening the fast doesnt feel the same if there are no pakoras on the table!
@jman – that sounds nice! I enjoyed pakoras often when I lived in Pakistan.
For us, we have a sort of joke also. The ‘joke’ / argument between my FIL and the rest of the family is when it’s time to break the fast. He always says, “ok, it’s time now” when the call for prayer happens in Mecca as we’re all watching t.v…..but of course the official time is 2 min. later in Jeddah. He says no…that we should go by Mecca time. The rest of the family tells him to wait and it goes like that in a circle until it is actually time. He always has a date or glass of water in his hand as we’re all arguing.
Many people like to eat out after fasting, but for us, it’s traditional to be at home with the family….and as Dorothy says, “There’s no place like home!”
@Rose Colored – that is so cute! And we are very much like you and enjoy having a traditional iftar at home.
I loooove that American Bedu. My family is big on traditional jokes/laughter etc. I’m afraid these would seem stupid to most but it is part of our family tradition (Christian tradition so doesn’t fit with Ramadan but I believe it is the same idea).
We have a set of deer antlers that a good friend had mounted and gave to us one Christmas. We HATE these antlers. Although we hunt for food, putting the remains of this beautiful animal on the wall seems tacky to us. Anyhow the gift is from a very good friend and must go up. Every Christmas someone decorates the antlers trying to be more garish and horrible than the year before. In doing this I suppose we remember our friend who we love so much that we still have his gift displayed.
Once in another home for Christmas, I wondered where their Christmas jokes were. When I explained our tradition, my friend asked, “Don’t these jokes get stale?” It took me awhile to think of the answer so I never explained. These jokes go so far beyond stale that you could call them a fossilized bedrock of giggles for the family.
May this Saudi family enjoy their Ramadan joke for many, many Ramadans.
@Annie – Actually my family had its own tradition too. My son’s grandmother loved to read the National Enquirer magazine/newspaper. I discovered that when he was visiting her he could be entertained for hours going through her stash. So that’s how we started a tradition on each Christmas putting a National Enquirer in my son’s Christmas stocking and this started when he was 5 years old. And it also gave mom (yours truly) a chance to sleep in a little later as he would sit and read his Enquirer! We still continue this tradition with him even today.
Pleased to note that the Chicago Sun Times picked up this post:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blogentries/index.html?bbPostId=B6kcqoGH9Pf8Bzn7nRZ5sNNoB6u5i2nxkt29Cz4aOcNbt1gZV
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