Ramadan Rituals in Times of Covid
Item
PGV_ID
300276
Title
Ramadan Rituals in Times of Covid
Media file format such as pdf, mp3, mp4, docx
pdf
Author (individual or group)
Sabrin Mohammed
Location
West Chester Township
45069
Religious movement
Muslim
Islam, general
Description or narrative
The holy month of Ramadan comes every year and brings an abundance of joy and connection to each other at the mosque. Taraweeh is the additional prayer after Isha prayer at night where everyone would pray together from 11 pm and would end around 1 or 2 am. This was held every night of Ramadan. Due to COVID-19 our mosque was closed for the holiday this year. This was the first time in years our mosque has been closed down. Instead of meeting in person live streams were held of the Taraweeh prayer.
I remember being crammed by hundreds of other women as we prayed side by side for hours. The children run around in the shoe room so they wouldn’t distract those praying. The breaks between prayers when you would socialize with your friends and mothers spoke to each other. After the long prayer was over I would follow a single file line out the busy doors and then there would be food tents set up that everyone would gather at. Grabbing a plate and filling up your plate with fruits, delicious foods made by the community, and sitting around with my friends. My mother would come outside with a plate in her hand as well and say that it’s time to go home. By this time it was around midnight. We would leave and the next night was the same thing. This year praying Taraweeh to a live stream in my empty living room was hard. The change was drastic and didn’t even feel real. The vibe of the month was off and very isolating. There was no connection within the community and to the holiday this year because of COVID-19.
I remember being crammed by hundreds of other women as we prayed side by side for hours. The children run around in the shoe room so they wouldn’t distract those praying. The breaks between prayers when you would socialize with your friends and mothers spoke to each other. After the long prayer was over I would follow a single file line out the busy doors and then there would be food tents set up that everyone would gather at. Grabbing a plate and filling up your plate with fruits, delicious foods made by the community, and sitting around with my friends. My mother would come outside with a plate in her hand as well and say that it’s time to go home. By this time it was around midnight. We would leave and the next night was the same thing. This year praying Taraweeh to a live stream in my empty living room was hard. The change was drastic and didn’t even feel real. The vibe of the month was off and very isolating. There was no connection within the community and to the holiday this year because of COVID-19.
Contributor
mohammsa
Religious organization, or house of worship
ICGC
Genre
Personal story, social media or blog post, unpublished material, etc.
Date
April 23, 2020
This item was submitted on September 16, 2020 by Sabrin Mohammed using the form “Help gather religious responses to the pandemic” on the site “Preaching Goes Viral”: https://pandemicreligion.org/s/preaching-goes-viral
Click here to view the collected data.