Ramadan Comes Early

For weeks now, Moroccans have been getting ready for Ramadan. There’s a sort of nervous excitement in the air. We’ve been hearing Ramadan sales at department stores that will put a President’s Day Sale to shame. We’ve heard how life in Morocco changes dramatically during Ramadan, and we’ve been offered plenty of advice on how to get through it. The ninth month of the Islamic calendar (starting September 24th this year) commemorates the Koran being revealed to Mohammed. Like a much more severe version of Lent, during Ramadan Muslims don’t eat, drink (including water), smoke or have sex during daylight. This leads to a lot of feasting at night, and rising to eat breakfast before dawn. We’re expecting to run into a lot of hungry, tired people as the month wears on. (We’ve also heard that airline pilots are exempted from observing Ramadan so that they don’t fall asleep at 35,000 feet.)



While during the year, observant Muslims refrain from alcohol, our experience in the supermarkets of Gueliz is that plenty of Moroccans take a more liberal approach to this rule. Not so come Ramadan, when it is not just a religious rule, but a government law that forbids Muslims to buy alcohol.

With Ramadan just three days away, I head to Acima for some groceries and wine, only to find the liquor section walled off but for a guarded turnstile. As I enter the line and the guard writes down my passport number, she explains that the prohibition on alcohol begins three days early to prevent Muslims from stocking up alcohol in advance. The French expat in the line behind me tells me to expect to be approached by Moroccans outside the store with handfuls of cash. Like teenagers in the States, they’re looking for someone to buy them a bottle of Syrah. The guard hears the comment, but doesn’t seem either surprised or inclined to do anything about it. She’s content to write down a list of what bottles I’ve picked out next to my passport number in her ledger.

Later, over dinner at our favorite bookstore-café, the proprietor tells us that she’d been told by one of her Moroccan staff that she is required to stop serving alcohol to Moroccans three days before Ramadan as well. And since the undercover morals police check in on her establishment from time to time, she will certainly oblige.

With this much buildup to the holiday, we’re excited to experience it for ourselves firsthand.