It’s 3:00 a.m. and I am awakened to the sound of a drummer. The night before, the same thing happened. Four or five strokes, a pause, and then another four or five strokes. It’s repeated over and over for 20 to 30 minutes. This is the third time we’ve been in a Muslim country during Ramadan.

The drumming is part of the month-long fasting that takes place each year in Islamic countries as part of the 30-day Islamic holy month of Ramadan. In Turkey it is called Ramazan. It is a time of fasting, prayer and celebration.
During Ramazan, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, letting nothing pass the lips: no food, drink, chewing gum, tobacco. The drummers circulate through towns and villages to wake sleepers so they can prepare Sahur, the big early-morning meal to be eaten before the fast begins at sunrise.

Although some Muslims may not take part in the fasting as they are not as strictly observant, most use the holy month and the period of fasting to help them examine their lives, to remind themselves of virtues like charity, compassion and forgiveness, and to avoid vices like cupidity, selfishness and dishonesty.

As a visitor to these countries, it's polite to refrain from eating and drinking in public during daylight hours. However, restaurants will continue to operate and serve their customers as they understand that not all of us take part in fasting.

I recall last summer Trevor and I feeling badly after ordering lunch in a small beachfront resort restaurant. As we looked around we realized we were the only people eating. However, we did see Turkish men drinking tea while playing board games like backgammon (by the way, they are both big time Turkish traditions), so decided that those around us were not fasting … maybe it was OK.

Yesterday I biked quite a ways to a local butcher we like. It was only 9:00 a.m. but the temperature was already about 30 C and I was hot and thirsty. I purchased a bottle of water while at a bakery but took in outside to drink it in private, in consideration of those in the bakery who may have been fasting. On the way in home, I noticed a parking attendant walking along the street. He stopped at a tap that was alongside the street and turned it on, wetting his hand and then touching it to his lips only. During this hot weather (low to mid 30’s every single day in July and August), I wonder how anyone can manage from today’s 6:05 am sunrise to 8:14 pm sunset with no water.

At the end of the 30 day fasting, everyone joins in a 3-day celebration. It is called bayram and is full of national traditions. It is a time for people to attend prayer services, put on their best clothes (often purchased just for the occasion), visit all their loved ones (relatives, neighbours, and friends), and pay their respects to the deceased with organized visits to cemeteries.

The first day of the bayram is generally regarded as the most important, with all members of the family waking up early, and the men going to their neighbourhood mosques for the special bayram prayer.

It is regarded as especially important to honour elderly citizens by kissing their right hand and placing it on one's forehead while wishing them bayram greetings. It is also customary for young children to go around their neighbourhood, door to door, and wish everyone a "Happy Bayram," for which they are awarded candy, chocolates, traditional sweets such as baklava and Turkish Delight or a small amount of money at every door, similar to the Halloween in our country.

Bayram is a public holiday, where schools and government offices are generally closed for the entire three-day period of the celebrations.

This entire period is one of the earliest and most important traditions of Islam.