The Street of Ramadan Lanterns
Over 15 years ago, this article appeared in the March/April edition of SaudiAramco World.
Blessed is He who made constellations in the skies and placed therein a lamp and a moon giving light; and it is He who made the night and day to follow each other: For such as have the will to celebrate His praises or to show their gratitude.
The Qu’ran, Chapter XXV (Al-Funqan, The Criterion), Verses 61-62
Written and photographed by John Feeney
No one knows for certain when the use of children’s Ramadan lanterns began, but it is a very old Egyptian tradition. Indeed, lanterns and lamps of various kinds, of many hues and degrees of brightness, and even both real and imaginary, have always been special to Egypt. For centuries before the coming of electricity, Cairo itself was noted for its spectacular use of lanterns to illuminate the city, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.
Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim lunar year, is a time of fasting, blessings and prayers. It also commemorates the revelation of the first verses of the Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad.
As a way of giving thanks to God during this holy month, and as a way of unifying the worldwide community of believers, Muslims – with special exceptions for the sick, nursing mothers, pregnant women and travelers – spend the daylight hours fasting. The hours of the night, until dawn, are marked by prayers, ceremonial meals and celebration of the day’s spiritual victory over human desires. After sunset, streets and squares all over the Muslim world are thronged with people out buying food after the long day’s fast, or visiting friends, or preparing for sahur, the last meal of the night, which will be taken before dawn. It is then that young Cairenes, allowed to stay up late because of Ramadan, traditionally gather in groups of three or four to go out among the crowds, swinging their glowing lanterns and chanting their ancient song of Ramadan – just as children in other lands go caroling – hoping to receive in return a few nuts or sweets for their vocal efforts.
Passed on by children from generation to generation, the traditional song, in colloquial Egyptian Arabic, accompanies the swinging of the lanterns in the little ones’ hands. It goes like this:
Wahawi, ya wahawi
iyyahah
You have gone, O Sha’ban,
You have come, O Ramadan,
iyyahah
The daughter of the Sultan
is wearing her caftan,
iyyahah
For God the forgiver
Give us this season’s gift.
Some believe that the children’s lantern song comes all the way from Pharaonic times, like the ancient Egyptian song called O-Faleh in the Pharaonic tongue and al-Bahr Sa’id in Arabic (meaning “The River Has Risen”). In the days before the Aswan Dam was built, that song was sung by groups out in small boats on the night the Nile reached the peak of its annual flood. Certainly, the lantern song is very old, and very Egyptian.
The opening lines – “Wahawi ya, wahawi iyyahah” – have no known meaning. “You have gone, O Sha’ban” refers to the month that comes before Ramadan in the Muslims’ lunar hijri calendar, and “the daughter of the Sultan is wearing her caftan” means she is dressed in the garment worn when going out, maybe to the mosque. “Give us this season’s gift” refers to the small presents children receive from family and friends at the time of the ‘Id or holiday that follows the month of fasting.
In the days leading up to Ramadan, children become more insistent about having a lantern; many can hardly wait to start swinging and singing – for what child, from its earliest years, is not attracted by a glowing, magical lantern? Yet Cairo children may be the most “lantern-struck” of all: Recent research by Dr. Marsin Mahdi of Harvard University indicates that Scheherezade’s ‘Alaa’ al-Din (Aladdin) of the magic lamp may well have been a Cairo boy.
One week before Ramadan begins, part of Ahmad Maher Street, for most of the year a humble thoroughfare in the old medieval quarter of Cairo, is transformed. Usually home to tinsmiths, marble-cutters and makers of mousetraps, for one glorious month it becomes “The Street of the Lanterns.”
Filmmaker John Feeney, who has lived in Cairo for a quarter century, is a long-time contributor toAramco World. He wishes to thank Laila Ibrahim, renowned authority on Mamluk Egypt, for her help with this article.
This article appeared on pages 14-23 of the March/April 1992 print edition of Saudi Aramco World.
You can read the rest of this fascinating article HERE.
I love the Ramadan lanterns. I’ve been to Cairo, and found the heat and the teeming population, the gridlocked traffic and all the begging a little scary. But I would go back in a heartbeat to see this street of lanterns!
For my non-Muslim readers, I found a wonderful site while researching Ramadan lanterns that gives a simple overview of Ramadan: Hamad El Afandi’s Ramadan Kareem. It is heavily illustrated with photos.
Where are Hussein and Ali?
Ten days ago I was taking a new friend around the old souks and I showed her Hussein and Ali, on the corner across from the main entrance to the Heritage Souk area, where a lot of expats buy carpets.
One week later, downtown with Adventure Man – Hussein and Ali’s shop is gone. The sign is down, the shutters are closed and it looks like they are never coming back.
Have they moved? Does anyone know what happened? Did they lose their lease?
Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum
On a recent flight, I found an insert for the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum, the Doha equivalent to the Tarek Rajab Museum here in Kuwait. I have visited both of these museums many times – and have marvelled that private individuals would amass such great collections and share them – free – with the public.
You have to be invited, or you have to ask (groups often do) if you can visit; it is not open daily the way the Tarek Rajab Museum is.
You can find the museum online at Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum.
Welcome Kuwait Sunrise
Adventure Man looks at me like I am stark-raving-out-of-my-mind.
“It feels different,” I have just said. “I can feel winter coming.”
The temperatures the last couple days have been 118° F. (48° C) going down at night to 91° F (33° C), according to my friends at Weather Underground: Kuwait.
But the five weeks I have been away have made a difference, I can feel it. The sun is rising almost a full hour later. The clouds are different, early in the morning, and there are more of them. No, no, I am not breaking out my sweaters yet, but the shift of the seasons has already begun in Kuwait, and I am nearly dancing for joy. I love the six months of winter in Kuwait.
For some reason, I am not jet lagging so badly this time, or at least not yet. Sometimes it hits me hard a couple days after arriving, but so far, so good.
And look at the Titian sunrise that greeted me this morning:
Watch out, Kuwait. Intlxpatr is back!
Packaging
Dont ya just love it when someone goes to a little extra trouble to delight you?
I have a routine when I get to Amsterdam, my half way point. After all those hours of flying, I love having a shower. I love having the small room all to myself, quiet, to get all clean, to brush my teeth, fix my frowzy-airplane hair, apply a little fresh makeup. I don’t usually get a lot of sleep on my first flight – could it be that last strong cup of coffee I eat before getting on the plane? 😉
And then I wait the endless hours for my flight to Kuwait, trying not to nod off, because the overburdened lounge staff at KLM don’t do flight announcements, and I am so afraid I will fall deeply asleep and miss my plane. All around me are sleeping people – many on their way to Accra, Entebbe, Mumbai . . . and a few familiar faces heading back to Kuwait. Whoda thunk, this early in August, so many people would be returning?
I get restless. I don’t like the lounge food, it has a stale feel to it, and is mostly processed unidentifiable meat slices and hardening cheese, so I head down for the sushi bar. It’s purely psychological, but I believe the miso soup hardens my immune system against airplane-air-germs, so I almost always have a cup of soup and a small tray of sushi, something cooked or vegetable so I won’t offend whoever is sitting next to me on the way back to Kuwait.
And, because the sushi bar was packed, I got it all to go and found a quiet place in Concourse D to sit and eat. And look what I found!
Now YOU tell me – isn’t that adorable?
Normally soy sauce comes in one of those nasty plastic or aluminum packets that you have to tear off an end. This – in a tiny little fish with a plastic screw-off cap – this gave me a moment’s grin in the middle of the limbo of airport transitions. And I thought of you, and how you might enjoy it along with me.
I’m sure it costs them more than a plastic packet. I love it that the top screws off, that the shape is a fish, I love the whole concept.
“It’s just soy-sauce”, you might say, shaking your head in mild disgust at how easily amused I am.
Yes, it is just soy sauce. And packaging matters.
Leaving Seattle
Here is what it is like, leaving Seattle.
For days, the televisions and radios have been telling us that traffic on I-5, the major interstate, will slow to a crawl for a month as serious repairs are made to the overpasses and bridgework supporting the freeway.
Remember the bridge collapse in Minnesota? I-5 is THE major route in and out of Seattle, traffic is unbelievably heavy, and yet . . . without regular inspection and maintenance, infrastructure fails, and a failure in mid-town Seattle could be catastrophic. The stoic Seattleites would much rather be inconvenienced than suffer a catastrophe, so they are all working to find alternate routes.
My drive through Seattle was a breeze. It was the last day before the closure. I was in prime time traffic. I don’t know if everyone thought the closures had happened already or if half the population is on vacation, but the drive was a delight – and the roads were dry.
My least favorite part of every trip is trying to get my bags to the check-in. Once, I left my bags in my rental car while I went for a cart, only to find on my return that the car – and my bags – were gone! It took half an hour to get the car back again. Now, I lug my treasure filled bags with me to the baggage cart section, wishing I were in Kuwait or Doha where someone would be running up to me with a cart, offering to cart my bags.
Check in is always another delight – because my ticket, even though it is an e-ticket, is booked in Kuwait, I have to wait for a real person to check me in, I can’t check in online or through one of the machines. But, by the grace of God, it all goes smoothly, and I am on my way to the gate.
But because I give myself plenty of time to get across town, I always have plenty of time before my flight, so I go to the food court. I love this food court. You could get Burger King, and a lot of people do, or you could get a wide assortment of organic foods, and a lot of people do, or you could get sushi and udon, which so many people do that they are usually sold out in short time. My favorite is a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.
I have my favorite place to sit and eat, and I love to look at the airport art work. Look at the light fixture. . . I don’t think it is a Chihuly, but just look at it! In the middle of the food court! Isn’t it just gorgeous? Doesn’t it remind you of a very cold river, in the shallows, flowing over rocks?
Sequim and Dungeness on Google
I know you guys explained in detail how to post maps. I know you even used small words, easy words, but somehow, I can’t make it work your way. I guess I need a workshop or something.
But I CAN go on GoogleEarth and SaveImage. It works for me, and I can use it here to share with you where the prior photos are taken on the trip to Sequim and Dungeness.
This is the map of the Sequim/Dungeness area. Dungeness is the spit up at the top where some of the sweetest crabs in the world live and die to feed our hearts and souls. If you ever get a chance to drive on the Olympic Peninsula, you will want to do so. It is not crowded, and the scenery is totally awe inspiring. There are Indian reservations selling Indian art, fields and fields of lavender, fresh fruits and vegetables, farms of all kinds, and views of the Puget Sound. Even in rainy weather, it is gloriously beautiful.
Here you can see Sequim and the Dungeness Spit as part of the larger area:
Ivar’s Acres of Clams
In Seattle, there are three restaurants, Ivar’s Acres of Clams (the original, established in 1938), Ivar’s Salmon House and Ivar’s Landing in Mukilteo, and several smaller, more casual, fast-food kind of Ivars, famous for fish and chips.
This was one very smart man. The first Ivar’s Acre of Clams was built next to the ferry terminal in Seattle and provided both oceanfront dining and a quick place to grab some fish and chips coming to and from the ferries. It was a Seattle landmark; everyone knew Ivar’s Acres of Clams.
He also did a lot of promotions, appearing on TV in his own ads, often singing. The ads were very very bad, so bad that everyone remembered them, so in fact . . . they were so bad that they were good.
(Photo courtesy Paul Dorpat from the HistoryLink.org collection of Pacific Northwest History.)
(Kuwait needs this Wikipedia kind of historical page, gathering data and stories before the old Kuwaitis are all gone, and their stories with them. This would be a great thesis program, getting this set up and running.)
Some of my earliest memories are meals at Ivar’s. As a child, visiting from Alaska, the whole of my father’s clan, aunts, uncles, cousins, would all gather at Ivar’s for a grand dinner. Later, as a starving college student, from time to time a kind aunt would invite us to dinner or lunch there, taking us out of the university environment. As a young married, it was the restaurant where my husband-to-be met my extended family for the first time. Ivar’s is full of memories, as well as good food!
To this day, I often meet my old friends at Ivar’s. The food standards remain high – good Pacific Northwest Seafood, prepared so that their flavors come through. Dungeness crab Louis, salmon and chips, prawns and chips, halibut and chips – even plain old fish and chips, fresh out of the deep fryer. Even Ivar’s fast food is delicious, and as well as the fish and chips you can get their great clam chowder, also smoked salmon chowder, and a salmon ceasar salad, or a shrimp or crab cocktail – at the fast food Ivars. Great quality food, not the supersize me kind of food.
These are photos of the original Ivar’s Acre of Clams:
This is what their seafood cocktails look like (YUMMMMMMM!)
This is one of their dine-in fast food places; there is a long line of people ordering!:
This is the Ivar’s motto:
The Mukilteo Landing Ivars suffered so much damage in a recent storm that they were closed for over a year as they remodeled to be able to seat more people:
This big fish is part of the interior:
You sit in this beautiful restaurant, inside or outside, and watch the Mukilteo ferry come in and out of the dock. The restaurant is right next to the dock, and also has a fast-food Ivars outside to sell fish and chips or chowder to all the people in line waiting for the next ferry.
Ivar Hagland isn’t alive anymore, but his restaurants live on, thriving, after all these years. The concept holds true – have a great product in a great location and the profits will follow. You can read more about his restaurants, and even look at their menus by clicking Ivar’s.
Anthony’s Beach Cafe, Edmonds, WA
These are the bathroom doors at Anthony’s Beach Cafe, in Edmonds, Washington. I am not going to show you any of their delicious food – they already have too many customers, and a long line of people waiting to get in and eat there, especially in this gorgeous summertime weather. Even in winter, Anthony’s is packed.
You would never see bathroom doors like this in Kuwait. But it would be fun to see a door with an abaya, and another with a dishdasha and gutra. 🙂
Father and Son Find Viking Treasure
A father and son in England, who spend their weekends treasure hunting stumbled across a treasure buried in a farmer’s field, worth an estimated $2 million. Buried more than 1000 years ago, the treasure has remained hidden in the ground all these years.
You can read the story <a href=”“> at Viking Treasure Found.
title=’20070721110909990009.gif’>
What I don’t understand is why they believe it was buried by the Vikings, rather than buried by someone trying to hide the wealth FROM the Vikings?
Recent Comments
ExpatAlien on What Country am I Living … intlxpatr on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Michelle on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Cathy on No Grown-Ups in Charge intlxpatr on Waiting for Snow Wikipedia Donate Button
Amazina
Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 