ozzieeagle

Well this is going to make the streets and shops very quiet around here over the next 30 days..... Lots of dates in the shops as well.

Does it make a difference in your life ?

old.sparkles

Bugger all difference - why would it?

ozzieeagle

Makes a big difference in the number of people out and about where I live. No queues in the many kebab shops....far more items on special mark down in the supermarkets...and like i said before massive piles of date boxes in the shops....much easievr to park in the shops car parks as well.

Just wondered if any other areas experienced a similar kind of downturn in commercial acti ity

spouse of scouse

No, no difference at all.

Bermudashorts

Nope. No matter where I have lived, I have never noticed any difference in daily life or commercial activity durung Ramadan.

ozzieeagle

Makes a huge difference here along our restaurant strip on Sydney Rd Coburg....Goes from packed to empty. Even the Thai and Malaysian places around here are Muslim based....No alcohol generally speaking and no practising islamic customers during the daytime over Ramadan.... No queues at the Checkouts in the Supermarkets either. Surely this isn't the only place Australia or the UK like this ?

Lots of billboards, with the Happy Ramadan Arabic writing as well "رمضان سعيد" which I take to be a symbol these days, as the vast majority of people of all backgrounds sizes here know what it means.


I may take some photos

spouse of scouse

I'm not surprised by the lack of customers in restaurants during the fasting hours, but I am by a lack of people in supermarkets. During Ramadan, Muslims eat pre-dawn, and break their fast after sunset (iftar). So they still eat and still have to shop, and they go about their daily business as usual.

Beoz

When I was working in the UK my colleague was into Ramadan. He used to hate celebrating Ramadan in the UK as the long summer days meant no food for longer periods. Poor bugger used to hit the wall about 3-4 in the afternoon. He looked physically ill and his productivity was shot.

Just noticed in the past few days one of my neighbours is doing a lot of praying. He was praying at 4am this morning. I was wondering if it was Ramadan. Thanks for the heads up.

bcworld

I live in a suburb where the largest religious group is Judaism...so no, not much difference!

ozzieeagle

I'm fairly sure the diet is changed quite substantially...... Hence the whopping great piles of dates in the Shops.

Dreamy

Not really - many Muslims traditionally break the fast by eating three dates - but otherwise a lot of stews, finger food and deliciousness is going on at Iftar.

spouse of scouse

What Dreamy said

Dreamy

Bizarrely, there's a lot of discussion about Ramadan on the myfitnesspal forums (mostly about how to manage their exercise while fasting through the day and how not to blow their calories during Iftar and Sehri/Suhoor ) but the descriptions of their feast food is... tempting, lol, to say the least.

cresta57

And Vimto apparently sales of Vimto rocket just before Ramadan. I read an article in a magazine at the doctors surgery so it must be true lol

With regard to the date consumption: One of my apprentices used to live with his devout Muslim parents [who owned a spar shop] he assured me dates are a very quick easy to digest sugar fix. They sold lots of dates during Ramadan, the only other time of the year they stocked them was Christmas.
Incidentally he preferred to microwave pork pies, secretly in the tea hut [I caught him red handed scoffing one]

Dreamy

I've told this story before but hey ho.

My grandad's funeral was catered by the ladies of the Co-op. My brother, a vegetarian, looked aghast at the food on offer, wondering what he could possibly eat.

'Have a sausage roll', one implored. 'Don't think there's much meat in those.'

Perhaps your apprentice justified his pork pie snaffling the same way