Holy Month

This past month or so has been Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.  It celebrates the time when Mohammad had his revelations and began receiving the Qur'an.  Muslims fast from sun up to sun down for an entire month.  After that month, they celebrate Eid Al-Fitri, the breaking of the fast.  "Eid" is pretty much a two day holiday where people go from one family member's house to the next.  Every person goes back to their hometown, which usually means out of the cities and into the villages.  It's a big holiday, much like we celebrate Christmas in America.  So, I thought I would post some of the pictures that I took around town this month.

Because everyone should be fasting, restaurants put up curtains so you can't be seen if you're breaking your fast. (Yes, that is an A&W in one of our local malls.  No, it does not taste the same)

Wendy's wishes everyone a Happy Ramadan.  (Yes, this mall has Wendy's.  Yes, it actually tastes like Wendy's . . . for the most part)

Even Ralph Lauren makes Muslim attire!

Girls this young don't usually dress in full Muslim attire, but they do make it.  Girls here love Frozen, too! 

I learned some about Muslim funeral traditions this week.  My neighbor's mother passed away on Friday (the mother was Muslim, although my neighbor is Catholic).  The mother was 96 years old.  They took her to the hospital because she hadn't eaten for several days.  I wish I had gotten a picture of the hospital, but I didn't think that would be appropriate.  It was situated much like a motel.  Each room opened to the outside, around a communal garden.  The rooms each had couches and chairs outside of it, kind of like an outdoor living room.  Keep in mind, this is still a developing country, so there was much dirt and no medical equipment in the rooms.  The mom was hooked up to an IV to give her nourishment. 

This is a very relational country, people visit others on many occasions.  So, a friend and I went to the hospital to visit.  We spent over an hour there, very unlike America where people drop in and leave quickly.  After being in the hospital a couple of days, she passed away.  She was taken to a funeral home (which is not very typical, usually the body stays at the home), where people are, again, expected to visit.  So, I drove my neighbor up the funeral home and spent another hour there.  The day of the funeral, my friend was not able to make it to the service, so she stopped by and asked me to go visit my neighbors with her.  So, I spent over an hour and a half visiting, again.  Lots of being neighborly this week =)

Because the mother was Muslim, I thought I would share with you some of the things I learned about death in the Muslim faith according to her Muslim tradition. 

~ To begin with, this is a very good time to die.  According to their religion, all during Ramadan, the gates to Paradise are closed.  However, on the day of Eid, they are opened and anyone who dies on that day goes straight into Paradise. 

~ Once a Muslim dies, they are supposed to be buried as soon as possible.  This usually means within 24 hours.  However, since this was a Muslim holiday and most of this country is Muslim, it was very hard for some family members to get flights into town, and some didn't even get to make it in.  So, she was buried 2 days after she died.

~ Muslims are not buried in coffins.  They are wrapped in a white sheet that is tied tightly in 7 places around them.  Once they are in the grave, the ties are untied so that they are able to walk around in the afterlife.

~ They are not buried in coffins because they came from the earth and go back to the earth.  In fact, the grave diggers make balls of dirt to place around the head so the aroma of dirt fills the nostrils.

~ Muslim prayers are said before the procession to the cemetery.  There are also gatherings for prayer every day for 7 days, after 40 days, 100 days, 1 year, 2 years, and 1000 days (this is actually just a Javanese tradition, not a Muslim tradition).  After 1000 days, the headstone is put on.  They wait that long to make sure the ground has settled.

~ At the cemetery, if the mother (or wife, children, etc.) of the deceased is crying, they will not close the grave, because they do not want the deceased to be burdened with tears in the afterlife.

That's all I can remember for right now.  Here are some pictures from the cemetery today.

See the basket the lady is holding?  That were about 6 if them and they were filled with flowers and flower petals that were put on the grave.

 The picture on the left is where the mother was buried.  She was actually buried on top of her mother.  There is very little grave space in this country.  The picture on the right is the grave of my neighbor's great grandfather.  It is right next to the first grave.  The picture at the bottom is the grave of my neighbor's cousin.  He died when he was only a couple of years old.  His grave is at the foot of the other two.

 The children were very involved in putting the flowers on the graves.

 

 I took this picture for a couple of reasons.  Notice the men sitting in the back.  These were they guys who were IN the grave when we got there.  They lowered the body in and put the dirt balls around the head.  The put cement over it and then took out their shovels and started covering it in dirt.  Also, notice the clothes of the women.  They were not very dressed up for a funeral, many just wearing jeans.  I think I was the only person there wearing a skirt.  It's also kind of hard to tell, but can you see how close all of the graves are?  It was very hard to walk between them, much of the time people were standing on other graves.  It is not at all lined up in neat rows like in American cemeteries.  Also, a lot of the graves were lined with tile.