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  • This is the first food 14 year old Ali and his family have had all day.

  • They haven't had anything to eat or drink since sunrisethis morning!

  • It's because they're celebrating a special time of year in their religion, called Ramadan.

  • Ali is a Muslim which means he follows the religion of Islam. During the month of Ramadan

  • most Muslim people do something called fasting. That means they don't eat or drink anything

  • between sunrise and sunset for a whole month!

  • They can't even drink water through the day! It's pretty tough, but for people like Ali

  • it's a really important part of his religion.

  • Ali: It's just to feel how the poor people feel, you know they don't get to have a lot

  • of water and food so that's mostly what it's about. It's a test.

  • Just like other religions, Islamic people have certain times of the year to celebrate

  • their faith, and Ramadan is one of them. During that month they spend more time thinking about

  • their religion, kind of like Christmas or Easter for Christians or Rosh Hashanah for

  • Jewish people.

  • During Ramadan Muslim people learn more about the Islamic religion by reading from their

  • religious book which is called the Quran, and the fasting is to help them focus on that.

  • Each year Ramadan starts on a slightly different date, because the name Ramadan is actually

  • the name of a month in the Islamic calendar and that calendar is a little bit different

  • because it's based on the cycles of the moon.

  • Although many Muslims choose not to eat or drink through the day during Ramadan they

  • do have some extra big meals before dawn and after sunset. Because having no food or water

  • at all for a whole month would be impossible! But even with these big meals Ali says Ramadan

  • can still be pretty hard.

  • Ali: “It's a little bit hard, especially, like sometimes we have football games. We

  • still play but we don't drink water!”

  • And he and his cousins say going to school can be tricky too.

  • Karima: Usually my friends come with these amazing lunches from like different places

  • and I'm like in the classroom and they're all eating their lunch and recess and I'm

  • like, you know, waiting for the bell to go, so that's probably the hardest part.

  • Ali: Yeah it's a little bit hard, I get hungry really easily.

  • Saleh: I haven't told anyone about it because I moved to this new school and I haven't fasted

  • there yet. Tomorrow will be my first day fasting at my new school.

  • Around the world there are more than 1.6 billion Muslim people. That's almost one quarter of

  • the world's population! But not all of them fast during Ramadan. People who are pregnant,

  • elderly or people who are sick often don't. And kids can only start doing it after they've

  • reached puberty.

  • But some do practice fasting before then often just for a few days. Ali has been fasting

  • for Ramadan since he was 10 and he says it's a bit easier this time.

  • Ali: It was really hard back then you get more used to it.

  • And although it's a tough month, these guys love learning about their religion. And it

  • doesn't hurt that there's a big party called Eid when the month wraps up!

  • Karima: At the end we get this big celebration and we go to the mosque and we do our morning

  • prayer and stuff like that and it's really fun to meet up with family and stuff.

  • Ali: Well there's a lot of food we're allowed to eat yeah! And there's rides and it's a

  • lot of fun.

  • Ramadan can be a real challenge but these guys wouldn't have it any other way.

This is the first food 14 year old Ali and his family have had all day.

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