Ramadan in the UK: Fasting for 18 Hours Amid the COVID19 Outbreak

2020 marks a list of new exciting yet challenging milestones in my life. This will be the year when I fast Ramadan abroad for the first time, and not to mention doing it while in the middle of the global pandemic; COVID19 emergency. Ramadan is a holy month for Muslim as it is believed as the month when Allah Subhanahu Wata’ala sends Al-Qur’an (Muslim’s holy book) to the earth. In Ramadan, Muslim must fast every day for 30 days starts from the sun rises to the sun goes down. During fasting we are not allowed to eat and drink, we are highly suggested to pray a lot and we must be able to control our emotion and carnality.

The good aspect of fasting during this inconvenient moment is that I can be more focused on fasting and praying since we have to #stayathome. However, it is also challenging at the same time because this year in the UK we need to fast for 18 hours! As a comparison, in my country (Indonesia) our fasting duration is only 13,5 hours from 4.30 am to 6 pm. This duration is fixed throughout the year because Indonesia only has two seasons; summer and rainy season. There is no time difference for sunrise and sunset during those seasons. As we all know, Britons experience four seasons throughout the year. The sun rises early at around 4 am during spring to summer (March-September) and it goes down very late in the evening at around 9 pm. Meanwhile, when fall comes (around October) the sun goes up a little later (6 am) and even more later in winter (December-February), which rises at 8 am. One day feels so quick as it already gets dark at 4.30 pm.

This year in the UK, Ramadan falls in 24 April-23 May. Yup! Exactly in the month when the sun rises very early in the morning and it goes down very late in the evening. Also, it gets earlier for the sun to rise and it goes down later every single day. It simply means that we fast longer and longer every day as it approaches the end of Ramadan. Amazing, isn’t it? 😀 In Indonesia, it is the other way around. As the end of Ramadan approaches, the shorter fasting duration we get (15 minutes shorter, but at least it gets shorter).

Every morning, I wake up one hour before the sun rises to do ‘sahur’ – to eat and drink before we start our fasting. Now that the sun rises at 3.50 am, so I wake up at 3 am. The next new challenge for me is that I have to do fasting alone without my family. Frankly, in Indonesia my mother prepares everything - the meal, the drink, vitamin, fruits and even she wakes us all up. I wake up 15 minutes before sunrise because I would just eat right after I woke up. In here, I do everything alone from setting the alarm, preparing the meal, eating without companion and praying…..… all by myself.

During the day, essay awaits 🙂 To be fair, essays distract me from lethal boredom due to COVID19 #stayathome program. Here’s another challenge during my fasting, that I cannot drink coffee while doing my essays. Well anyway, it’s surely not a reason for procrastinating! By the way, I have a very good tip for you to find fasting comfortable - do something fun, do your homework, take a nap, pray and reading Qur’an. I read 10 pages of Qur’an five times a day after I pray. If you constantly do this pattern, you will finish reading the Qur’an before the end of Ramadan! And I find it as the easiest and the quickest duration to finish reading the Qur’an.

COVID19 takes my fasting challenge into the next level. Yes, we can go out, but for limited purposes and not everyone willing to go out. In Indonesia we have a tradition called ‘ngabuburit’, it means doing fun things while waiting for the ‘iftar’ – the time to finish our fasting when the sun goes down. We normally go out, walk around, buy street foods for iftar or work out. In here, everything is closed due to coronavirus and again not everybody willing to go out, so when you decided to go out, you probably have to do it alone. When iftar comes, I say hello again to my solitude, LOL! I prepare my iftar meal, I even learn to cook some foods from youtube. No more mama’s cook, LOL 😀 I have my usual iftar menu that I always consume in Indonesia. It’s an Indonesian traditional fry called ‘bakwan’. Bakwan is a vegetable fries made of carrot, cabbage, beansprout, spring onion, flour and other seasonings. You’ll feel the crispy sensation in every bite and taste the delicacy from the veggies and seasonings. OH MY GOD! The iftar is still seven hours to go, I need to stop writing about bakwan 🙁

Apart from bakwan, I also have my mom’s special snack that she always makes it for us during Ramadan. It is called ‘cheesy lumpia’. This is not necessarily an Indonesian traditional food, because it’s my mom’s creation. And it is so simple yet overwhelmingly TASTY! It’s also a fry. When you bite it the cheese touches your tongue, melted and the pastry collides with your teeth with the sound “crissspppppsssss…crsdkxndsssppsss…krawrkk..krawwkkk…&$@^&&@*…”

Oh Gosh, I need to stop again 🙁

Anyway guys, how to make those two foods will be featured on my next blog: Perfect Indonesian Fries for Iftar‎. Feel free to check it out! 😀

Another thing that is missing in this Ramadan due to COVID19 is that we cannot have iftar together with our friends. In Indonesia, we commonly refer to as ‘bukber’. We normally have iftar in a restaurant or at a friend/family’s house, especially at the weekend. However, thanks to video call apps I still can have an online bukber with my classmates though 😀

One thing that I expect to do in this Ramadan is actually to do Taraweeh together at the mosques in Leeds. But of course, I have to bury the expectation as COVID19 urges us to pray at home. Leeds has 26 mosques around the city. The closest Mosque from my accommodation is Leeds Grand Mosque (LGM), which is also the biggest Mosque in Leeds. It takes around 15 minutes to walk to the Mosque from my house. I also refer to LGM’s prayer schedule as the guidance for my sahur and iftar time. According to my Muslim British friend, LGM follows Saudi Arabia to determine their Ramadan. That is why LGM started fasting on the 24th of April (same as in Indonesia), while some other local Mosques that follow Turkey/Morocco started to fast in the 25th. This is just a little new information that I learned from Ramadan in the UK.

Overall, I am very much grateful that I can deeply focus on my fasting and pray in this holy month. We believe that prayers during Ramadan are magic! Therefore, I sincerely pray shall we all be safe, healthy and this pandemic will soon be over. Aamiin ya Rabbal ‘Alamiin..