Ramadan Starting in Jakarta

Tuesday August 10th marked the start of Ramadan for Muslims across the world. Since about 85% of the Indonesian population is Muslim, Ramadan is a significant part of the culture here. As you probably know during Ramadan, Muslims fast during daylight hours (typically 4am until 6pm). What I didn't know prior to moving here is that when nearly everybody you work with and deal with on a daily basis hasn't eaten all day, it can result in some interesting social interactions. Take lunch for example. You walk into a normally busy restaurant that is now quite empty except for a few other expats and some non-Muslim Indonesians. You place your order with a clearly Muslim young lady (and probably a quite hungry one) behind the counter. Of course you are there to eat so you receive your food and start eating while the hungry Muslim lady watches and asks if she can bring you anything else. She is polite and helpful, but the incongruity is glaring and one can't help but be a little more discreet while eating in these situations.

Ramadan really draws a line through the population. If you didn’t know who was Muslim or Christian before, now you do. Unlike the US where religion is more private, here everybody knows where you stand. Good thing is everybody is quite polite and respectful of each other so the division doesn’t really result in any tension.

So that being said, the first night of Ramadan is quite a big deal so all the mosques turn up their speakers and play a combination of Koran reading in Arabic and preaching in Indonesian. The readings were very loud on the first night so I went outside and started recording. Thought it was worthy of sharing. Check it out…