CAIRO – Compared to Ramadan 2020, when mosques around the world were closed for prayer during the holiest month of the year for Muslims, and curfews prevented friends and family from gathering to break the fast, this year’s religious holiday has the promise of something much offered closer to normal.
“Last year I felt depressed and did not know how long the pandemic would last,” said Riyad Deis, a co-owner of a spice and dried fruit store in the Old City of Jerusalem. On Tuesday, the first day of the Muslim fasting month, its narrow alleys lived with shoppers looking through Ramadan sweets and worshipers heading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Mr. Deis, 51, who sold whole pieces of turmeric and dates of Medjool to a customer, remembered how empty and muted the Old City felt last year when virus cases went up and the authorities closed Al-Aqsa to the public. “Now, I’m relaxed, I have enough money to take care of my family and people are buying goods in my store,” he said. “It’s a very different reality.”
Across the Muslim world, authorities have instituted Ramadan customs and festivals at mosques this year: asking worshipers to bring their own prayer robes and wearing face masks, and taraweeh time limits, the special extra prayers some worshipers perform every night of the month , and the introduction of other rules.
A train. In the days before Ramadan, many in the region adopted the festive traditions that create crowds – despite the possible increase in cases. Worshipers descended on mosques. Shopping districts in Cairo were overcrowded.
For many people, unlike last year, Ramadan 2021 would be a shared experience with many people planning to break the fast with family and friends over extensive iftar meals, even if in smaller groups than usual.
Such plans seem to continue regardless of the vaccination status, which varies greatly from country to country. (The religious authorities in several Arab countries have announced that receiving the vaccine will not violate the fast.)
Vaccination efforts in Syria and Lebanon have been hampered by poor organization, poverty and corruption as they move forward in the United Arab Emirates. Israel quickly vaccinated most civilians, but was heavily criticized for failing to vaccinate Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
With the uneven distribution of vaccines, the spread of the virus remains a danger.
In Egypt, government officials and leading television host have warned Egyptians against a third wave of infections in the run-up to Ramadan. Health officials are particularly concerned about cases increasing during the holy month, as Ramadan this year also coincides with the Orthodox Passover, celebrated by Coptic Christians in Egypt, and another national holiday, Sham El Nessim.
The Ramadan restrictions may hit the hardest in low-income Egyptian neighborhoods, where residents in other years depend on the tables laden with iftar food donated by wealthy individuals, mosques or other organizations. These free festivals are banned this year, just like last year, but in Cairo, some charities are distributing boxes of pantry clothes.
Muslims in Lebanon and Syria are also entering Ramadan with dramatically reduced expectations due to worsening economic crises in both countries exacerbated by the pandemic, rather than due to restrictions on public health.
In East Africa, Ramadan comes amid rising coronavirus infections in many countries.
In Kenya, authorities have imposed longer curfews, closed pubs and schools, restricted gatherings in places of worship and restricted travel to and from five provinces, including Nairobi, the capital.
For Nairobi residents, such as Ahmed Asmali, it means a prolonged inability to break up with loved ones or to attend prayers at larger congregations.
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“This is the second year now that we have been caught,” he said. Asmali, a 41-year-old liaison officer, said. The experience, he said, “feels strange. Feels out of place.”
In Syria, where, according to experts, the official infection and mortality rates for Covid-19 (more than 20,100 cases and 1,360 deaths since the start of the pandemic) are far below reality, the government has few restrictions. Worshipers will be allowed to stand inside mosques to pray together after they broke down, the Syrian Ministry of Religious Affairs said.
In Lebanon, which recently emerged from a tight close, the currency has lost more than 80 percent of its value against the dollar over the past 18 months, and unemployment has risen. Food prices rose so fast that a month’s meals for a family of five – one date per person, lentil soup, a simple salad and a chicken and rice dish with a bit of yoghurt – for a month food to cost two. half the country’s minimum wage, according to the Lebanon Crisis Observatory, a project of the American University in Beirut.
The pandemic is still overshadowing many of the festivities. Store owners in the Old City of Jerusalem said they were concerned that Israel would not allow a large number of Palestinians from the West Bank, where few were vaccinated, to visit the Old City during Ramadan, and be deprived of the area of their holiday spending.
Prepandemic, Israel usually allowed tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank to visit Jerusalem on Friday during the fasting month. The arm of the Israeli government liaising with the Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday that Israel would allow 10,000 vaccinated Palestinians from the West Bank to pray at the Aqsa on Friday. The government also said authorities would allow 5,000 vaccinated Palestinians from the West Bank to make family visits between Israel and Sunday next week.
Omar Kiswani, the director of the Aqsa Mosque, said he was delighted that the complex was open to worshipers – an estimated 11,000 attended the taraweeh prayers at the complex on Monday night – but stressed that people still needed to be careful. He said that at the mosque, masks and two meters distance between worshipers are needed, and that the indoor and outdoor areas will be sterilized daily.
“These are times of great happiness,” he said. Kiswani said. “We hope the blessed Aqsa Mosque will return to its glory. But these are also times of warning, because the virus is still there. ”
Vivian Yee reported from Cairo, and Adam Rasgon from Jerusalem. Asmaa al-Omar contributed reporting form Beirut and Abdi Latif Dahir of Nairobi.