Archive for the “Religion” category
It must really take a lot of faith to become a “true” Muslim. Especially during the Ramadan, which almost always coincides with the peak of summer when the temperature could rise beyond the 50-degree Centigrade mark, I can’t imagine how could someone last a whole day without even drinking a single drop of water.
If you’re not aware of the Ramadan, here’s a little excerpt so you’ll have an idea of what I’m talking about.
“Observed by more than one billion Muslims around the world, Ramadan is a time for spiritual purification achieved through fasting, self-sacrifice and prayers.
Celebrated during the ninth month of Islamic calendar, the fast is observed each day from sunrise to sunset. Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five Pillars of Islam. The Islamic belief that requires that Muslims perform five central duties in order to strengthen their faith. While Islam has two major sects, the Sunnis and the Shiites, all Muslims aim to realize these five pillars in their lifetime.”
Fasting is the keyword. No food, no water, not even a puff of cigarette from sunrise to sunset. FOR ONE WHOLE MONTH!
Non-Muslims, on the other hand, are not required to observe fasting during the month of Ramadan. They just had to do their un-observance in private. Consider it as a way of being considerate with our Muslim brothers who chose to observe fasting. Imagine how much burden you would be contributing to them when they see you wolfing a plateful of meat while they’re trying with all their heart and soul not to sip even a droplet of water. That means we have to cover all glass windows on the cafeteria and even the office windows so we could still enjoy our mini-snack bars during tea breaks.
Also, the regular office hours got to be shifted from the usual 7AM to 7PM to 6AM to 6PM. That means we had to wake up at 4 in the morning instead of 5 to prepare for work. But one good thing that springs from all these adjustments is that we can go home an hour earlier (therefore getting virtually reconnected an hour earlier with our homeland, read: TIME ZONES) not to mention the sudden disappearance of vehicles on the desert road from the usual heavy traffic during non-Ramadan days when your cars could almost always got stuck side-by-side a truckload of goats and sheep.
And just like the assorted mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn or Moon Cake Festival in China, samosa, more popularly known among the desert locals as sambusa, suddenly become the sales top grosser on groceries, convenience stores and street markets.
Those are samosas in assorted flavors. Most of the Filipinos here try to avoid picking the curry-flavored ones but my least favorite are the ones with goats cheese filling. A colleague said he bought a pack for SAR5 on the first day of Ramadan but, due to its popularity, a bag already costs SAR15 on the second day.
“Desert life was like a bag of samosas. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
Ramadan Kareem!
Salah is the Islamic word for prayer though linguists may argue that the most literal translation of the word is “connection.” Anyhow, Salah is the practice of formal prayer in Islam.
Below is a photo taken from the second floor balcony of the villa where I am staying with some of my colleagues here in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. See the tower-like edifice on the right? That is the peak of the mosque located right beside our villa.
The people here use to pray five times a day (pre-dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset and evening) and they use those megaphones to call the people living nearby when it is time for them to pray. Just like how Catholics ring the church bells to call people to attend the holy mass. I would normally hear the prayer leader from those megaphones as early as 4:30 in the morning, when we go off from work at 7:30 and between 9 and 10 in the evening.
During those times, all stores and restaurants will be closed to give the merchants a chance to pray so if you’re eating on a resto during their prayer time, you have no choice but finish your meal as fast as you can’t because you’ll have to leave the place immediately.
I took this photo of the moon and the tower around 9:00 tonight. They look so picture-perfect together though my camphone can’t just give them any justice. I already did a bit of a Photoshop trick but it still look awfully like this. 
When I was new here in Tagaytay, I always wondered how the Divine Word Seminary got its SVD initials or nickname when SDW or DWS could have been more appropriate. I searched and searched and finally found what does SVD stand for.
“Most members of a religious community use initials after their name to identify the religious congregation they belong to. For example, SJ stands for the Society of Jesus and OSF reflects the Order of St. Francis. SVD is Latin for Societas Verbi Divini. Translated into English, it means Society of the Divine Word. However, in the USA, we are more commonly called the Divine Word Missionaries or the SVDs.”
The Holy Spirit Chapel is housed at the Divine Word Seminary in Tagaytay City. It is one of the most popular chapels in Tagaytay that both locals and tourists go to during Christmas and Advent seasons.
