The hilal of the new moon of Ramadan 1435 Hijrah was sighted on Saturday night a week ago, marking the start of Muslims' holy month.
In practice, Ramadan means many things but the most obvious to a non-Muslim is the imposed fasting during the daylight hours. This has both positive and negative side effects in our daily lives. Work finishes early as most people have been up all night eating - and of course praying. The later in the day we get, the more erratic people's behaviour becomes; I've seen shop keepers asleep at the tills, people generally wondering aimlessly in shopping centres looking listless. Even Lonely Planet warns people of driving after 3 pm as even the little concentration will have gone out of the window along side with the spit that the most devout Muslims cannot swallow. If they are bad drivers when they have had breakfast, lunch and dinner, they certainly are terrible during the fasting month! And we still have three weeks to go... This year is the first year in Brunei where also non-Muslims are subject to very much stricter fasting rules. In previous years non-muslim restaurateurs were able to open their doors to non-muslim customers and serve food all day, thus the holy season not really affecting the expats and local Chinese and Philippine population. As we just moved to Brunei at the wake of last year's Ramadan we witnessed the change half way through the month and this year the ban was announced on the first day of Ramadan: no restaurant can serve drinks or food to be consumed at the premises before the break of fast. Only take away portions and drinks are allowed to be served without risking fines up to $4,000 and a year's imprisonment. No coffee breaks for us for a month as the ban in public spaces includes one's car! (Although this doesn't stop Starbucks still employing 10 members of staff during the daylight hours - side remark...)
Many local Muslims have actually been annoyed and upset about this full ban as they feel they are babysat by the state, and there has been active discussions on the social media and even in the newspapers. They feel that their faith should be strong enough regardless of what the nonbelievers choose to do during the day. Whether it is a sip of water, a Starbucks or even a local delicacy tuna doughnut(!), they shouldn't be tempted by the actions of others.
If Bruneians lives evolve around eating, or makan, in the other 11 months, they certainly do during Ramadan. When the fasting breaks around 6.30pm local time, food seems to be the only thing in their minds (although I can't blame them considering how hangry I get...). Several new food stalls have popped up serving nasi and mee all around Bandar. To add to the regular evening markets, there is a designated Ramadan food market at the National stadium selling various dishes for families to take away. Whilst driving around in the evening on the empty streets, you can witness rows of tents full of people eating in private gardens. Sungkai buffets are also a big part of the local Ramadan culture - several restaurants offer buffets from the break of the fast, some of them staying open until dawn. If your uncertain when to start the evening meal, not to worry, there is an app for that!
Not everyone eats out, though, marked by surges of people in the supermarkets with empty shelfs... Empty streets, good times. Empty shelfs, bad times. So there certainly is a marked difference to our daily lives during the fasting month, starting from the fact that we cannot go out for a coffee or breakfast, navigating amongst worst driving ever, to finding no have in supermarkets but also working half days and enjoying the sungkai buffet offers and trying out new dishes.
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