Remembering Longer Days

As with the Gregorian calendar the Islamic calendar has 12 months, but is lunar and around 10 days shorter than the Edwardian calendar. This means that next year, Ramadan will start around September 3.

And in only a few years, it will be in the middle of summer and that is when the real test starts.

In places like the UAE, the day is not much longer in summer than it is in winter but the heat is a lot stronger and if you work outdoors then fasting is a lot more difficult and for that you are rewarded more.

But, for people in the northern hemisphere where the winter days are short and summer days are extremely long, fasting can also be tiring.

In some countries the time between breakfast and the time to start the day again the next day is as short as six hours.

I recall when I started to fast; I was no more than seven or 10 years old and was in London, UK. Ramadan fell in summer and the days were long. We broke our fast at around 9.30pm and started fasting at 3am or so.

As a child and a new faster, I found it all very difficult but the long days made it that much more so. I recall sitting in front of the TV with my sister with the teletext clock on counting down the minutes and seconds. Often running to the phone to call the Speaking Clock to double and triple check the time for iftar hadn't passed without us knowing.

In addition to this we had Arabic satellite channels on; they had a ticker service which informed fasters when it was iftar time in their city.

Despite these three checks, I was still worried I'd miss the time and prolong my hunger pangs.

The last minute before iftar always seemed the longest though. My sister and I would count down the 60 seconds then run down the stairs to the kitchen screaming “FOOD!''.

Those were good days.