Impact of Ramadan for non-muslims

Pix credit: http://ramiismail.com

What do Non-Muslims do during Ramadan?

Ramadan comes about once a year and last for 29 or 30 days depending on the sighting of the moon. Muslims will fast in the day for the month and general social and economic activities will tend to slow down. Ramadan occur in the Summer month of June which is amongst the hottest month of the year.

A good proportion of the Qatar's population is non-Muslim. How does Ramadan impacts the rest of the population that do not need to observe the holy occasion? How much do they need to adjust their life to accommodate their Muslim's neighbours, colleagues and friends?

Meal time for non-Muslims during Ramadan

Muslims will fast during the day. Hence, all restaurants are closed and no food, drinks or smoking is allowed during the day for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

This is not difficult for breakfast as most people can still carry on to have breakfast at home. Lunch is a little difficult as no public eating places are opened except for selected schools, companies and hotels. Where eating places are opened, they need to be cordoned and discreet so that casual passerby will not see any food nor people eating.

If your workplace does not have an operating eating place during Ramadan, most companies will designate certain pantry or corners for non-Muslims to take their packed lunch. Some places will not even have such discreet eating places and you may just have to fast along with your Muslim brother.

Drinks will no longer be served during meetings, there are no more water-cooler gossips, and coffee breaks need to take place behind closed doors.

Eating places will start to open for dinner after 6:30pm. There will be long queues outside popular eateries. Some eateries will start selling take-away food discreetly after 5pm.

Working hours and business tempo during Ramadan

The law dictate shorter working hours during the month of Ramadan. Hence, people who starts work at 7:30am find themselves on the way home at 1:30pm instead of the typical 3:30pm.

Civil authorities, banks, offices, worksites and schools will all have adjusted working hours. These allow Muslims to go home early to rest as most people who fast tend to be lethargic during the day. Non muslims certainly benefit from the shorter hours too.

You will find it difficult to make work progress especially if your work require you to liase with external bodies as you'll find your fasting counterparts lethargic during the day or not being available due to the shorter hours. Most business pitches, sales call, meetings, seminars will tend to go slow during this period. Conversely, you may see engineering, roadwork and infrastructure activities go up to take advantage of the lesser traffic and distractions.

Road behaviour during Ramadan

Qatar road is congested and difficult and most of us strategise what time and what route to take to avoid traffic congestion. All these strategies come to nought during Ramadan as traffic pattern change completely during Ramadan.

Roads are a lot quieter as generally Ramadan coincides with the Summer vacation when school is out and a lot of expats are away for Summer vacation. There is less social and business activities during the day which again lead to even lesser traffic. Hence, instead of always being late, you now find yourselves being early as a typical 30 mins journey may now only take 10 mins.

What you do need to watch out for is the witching hour just before the breaking of fast which is the 6:30-7:00pm period. This is when many fasting Muslims go for their first meal of the day and they are impatient after a day of fasting and woe to anyone who gets between them and their first meal! They drive fast, cut traffic and put up reckless manoeuvres; much more so than what they would do during normal months. Traffic is much lighter during this period and allow even more speeding and weaving in and out of traffic. Avoid driving during this period if you can.

Traffic congestion starts after 7:30pm and builds up very badly around shopping malls, restaurants and hotels with people and vehicle going in and out for dinner. This will continue up to 10pm as Iftar dinner give way to the Suhoor crowd.

Avoid the next peak traffic period which is typically 12-2am as the Subhoor crowd leave and go to another location to eat, socialise or relax.

Social occasions during Ramadan

Some restaurants and pubs in 5-star hotels in Qatar serve alcohol but all such activities stop during Ramadan. Restaurants will go dry and most pubs will stay close for this period.

Hence, drinking and entertaining activities slow down during this period.

On the other hand, you'll probably get invitations for Iftar or Suhoor meals from your workplace or business associates. Iftar is the first meal after the breaking of fast and Suhoor is the last meal before dawn for fasting to take place again.

Iftar and Suhoor has become very much a social occasion not unlike Christmas or New Year occasions. Many restaurants and hotels will light up and offer tents or ballrooms for hosting such dinners.

While Iftar is the first meal on breaking fast and is supposed to be a light meal consisting of dates, fruit juice, nuts and bread, it has now become a buffet galore with sushi, pasta, grilled lambs, curry and everything in between.

Suhoor is the last meal before dawn fasting starts and is supposed to be 3-4am but to befit it as a social occasion, Suhoor dinner in restaurants and hotels start as early as 8pm and last till midnight where an even more lavish buffet galore awaits.

You are likely to get multiple invitations from friends, colleagues and business associate for Iftar or Subhoor dinners. For the busy socialite, it is not uncommon to recieve a few invitations in one week alone.