Memories of Ramadhan

I always remember Ramadhan as the month where my normal daily routine would change significantly. I started fasting when I was seven years old. In the early hours of the morning at 4.30 am, mother would wake us up from our sleep to have our food (sahur) because after that, as soon as dawn break, there'll be no more eating till sunset. That means no breakfast and no lunch. When the sun sets at about 7 pm, father would signal its time to break the fast and that would be our dinner which on normal days, would at about 8.30pm. Anyway, we don't mind as mother would make sure that the food on the table would always be more than usuall.

At the nearby mosque, the crowd would be bigger than normal come the evening prayers. It would be like a festival going on for the whole month. Father would take us there every night for the whole month. We do the Tarawih prayers, enjoy the food prepared by the mosque and after that, we read the Quran in small groups before going home. It would be almost 11pm before we reached home. It may be tiring but it was fun.

Nowadays, come Ramadhan, the daily routine still changed. Only my parents are not around anymore. Now my wife and I are the parents. We wake the children up for the morning meal, break the fast together and go to the mosque with them for the Tarawih prayers at night.
Now its our turn. One day, it will be their turn.