You laid out a thoughtful and compelling argument. And then I instantly clicked “Ramadan.” A month, dude, a month.

You’re probably right, but I still voted for my own people.

Many moons ago, pre-Daily Show, Jon Stewart had a bit about Jewish holidays. Of Yom Kippur, he said, “We fast for one day, one day, and all our sins are forgiven. Beat that with your ‘Lent.’ ”

Ramadan wins by a landslide (if YK had won, I might have been tempted to say ‘by a nose,’ but that would be wrong). Add to their list: it moves; some years in the winter, some in the summer. In 2001, it started around Thanksgiving, now it’s in September. So it could be 99 degrees outside, and you can’t have a glass of water. That’s rough.

I guess if the contest was for Who gets Away With the Easiest Fast, we would have won.

Ramadan really means “fast all day, party all night.” Nice Halal parties, of course, with swingin’ music and rose water. You don’t have to buy expensive tickets to religious services, either, so you can afford good grub each night. A month goes by more quickly than a day in Shul.

I think Zaimah and Sonny have “fast all day, party all night” plastered on their bedroom wall.

Ramadan, by a mile. I spent a Ramadan in predominately Muslim Sarajevo. Everyone I worked with was groggy and cranky by the end of it, and looked like they wanted to sprinkle me with ketchup and eat me.

How did they eat during the evenings? I bet they gorged themselves.

so does no lotions mean no shampoo or toothpaste today? and what shoes are you wearing if there is no leather?

Nope. But I draw the line at not brushing my teeth.

Paper shoes.

Netflix is okay? How did I not know that all these years?

Sure, why not? What else are you going to do, stare at the wall for 24 hours?

sorry to report that I voted for Ramadan. It was close until I saw the weight gain part. Sucks because I was totally considering doing the Ramadan diet this year.

You should market that.

….%*$* I completely forgot about the no washing bit…
Then again I was probably going to go and atone by getting my ass handed to me in Heroclix…but still…

The no washing part doesn’t bother me too much. But I do brush my teeth, unlike some Conservatives I know.

Arjewtino, they ate during the evenings. And Bosnian food is pretty meaty and heavy (head over to Cosmopolitan Bakery in Alexandria if you wanna try it). So they were usually OK, except for toward the end of the day when I was headed home from work. I half-expected to be dragged into a car and eaten!

At least it was November, and the sun sets early in Sarajevo, so they didn’t go too hungry for too long.

Sounds like Heaven to me compared to not eating anything.

But if you were actually following the Sabbath, Netflix would be out too.

Not only am I unsure of the depth of my own faith in Judaism, I just don’t agree with the pay to pray concept.

At least we only have to atone once per year. Totally better than having to go to confession.

Even if we could go to confession to ask for forgiveness, the priest would only remind us to call our mothers more often.

I know a lot of muslims who are fasting right now, trust me. They have it a lot harder.

But they do get to leave work an hour or so early.

You know what else they get to do? Eat dinner tonight.

Fasting in Sarajevo is not that big a deal. I was there when there were shells falling in 94, meaning food scarcity irrespective of your religion.

It’s actually harder for a Bosnian to go without coffee and smokes during the day than food.

That’s pretty interesting. Food is one thing, but an addiction to smoking can be brutal.

I’d just like to point out another difficulty with ramadan, is that if it overlaps with summer you’re screwed. Longer days, and no water during the day. For a month.

Good point. But having YK fall on a Friday night just sucks.

Zamia she may forgot that Fasting in Ramadan if not just about food, the fasting for all five senses, what’s that mean is your hands should not do any Sin, Your Mouth should not practice or do any Sin, your eyes should not doing any Sin, and so on and so forth, so the fasting from food is one part of the total fasting to be trained and feel by yourself how the poor and the hunger do to your follow people and that to encourage you to be more motivated and supportive to help those poor people in your community.

In addition this month is where the Quran was brought by the Massager to Our Profits Muhammad, and Allah asked the Muslims to pray and ask for giveness from all Sins,

This is all educational to me, but I’m sure Zaimah and Sonny know it.

Doesn’t look good, AJT.

Looks awful. I didn’t think we’d win but this is a shellacking.

[…] Ramadan v. Yom Kippur. [Arjewtino] […]

I kind of doubt you actually want my protestant perspective on this debate, but here goes:

This year marks my first-ever Yom Kippur experience first hand while I try and hide my eating from my observant Jewish girlfriend by stashing a sandwich in the medicine cabinet in my bathroom so she won’t realize I’m sneaking food between Netflix movies while we’re not having sex. There’s also gatorade in the shower, so as long as she doesn’t find out about it, I’m set. I really hope she doesn’t read your blog.

On the other hand, during college, I took Arabic classes from a lovely woman from Bethlehem who insisted on doing lessons immediately after sunrise so she could squeeze it in during breakfast between the first and second prayers of her day. As a result, though I am not a Muslim, I had to fast during Ramadan. Actually, I didn’t have to fast during Ramadan, I just had to skip breakfast every day for a month and it STILL made me miserable.

One more vote for Ramadan.

I used to work at a school with lots of Muslim students–I saw then how hard Ramadan is!

Oh Jesus, Ramadan for sure. Jews have 4 sunrise to sunset fasts too, y’know. And they’re hard. A month in a row? No freaking way.

Uh, scratch that Jesus part.

You can’t tell who voted for what, can you?!? If so, sorry.

So I guess only 11% of your readers are Jews, by the look of the current poll result!

I come from the northern hemisphere of this world. The _very_ northern hemisphere since I grew up a few miles above the arctic circle.

One thing I noticed about the conditions there is that it is either extremely beneficial or extremely harsh to muslims who follow Ramadan - since if it occurs in the darkest period of winter there is only about an hour of daylight, and if it occurs in summer there is virtually light during the entire 24 hours of the day due to the midnight sun.

That’s something to consider if one is a muslim and plan on moving north.

Ramadan- because I have observed it for two years in a row with my Muslim husband. No WATER at all from daybreak to sunset- this is very hard and to do for even one day, but the whole month drags on. And it is hot in DC right now and each year it moves forward 10 days. I can’t imagine how hard no water will be in summer! Even walking to work from the metro makes me a wee bit thirsty. The food part is not nearly as difficult as the water part.

I would gladly do one hard day over 30 hard days. Try no water for a month (16 hours a day in the heat)- and then tell me which is harder.

I have to point out that the gaining weight during Ramadan thing is not true in my case. I don’t think I’ve ever gained weight during Ramadan, even though I’ve been a fasting Ramadanian for almost a decade now..

Yes- we lost weight too. By the time you are ready to eat at night you think you will eat alot but you fill up on water first, so you end up eating less. Also we eat our carbs in the moring because they are more filling and that is when you need them the most (and can expend them the easiest).

Nomi

Now that my Yom Kippur fast is complete, I voted for Ramadan. I still wonder how Hakeem Olajuwon was able to play during Ramadan. Sandy Koufax didn’t pitch in the World Series on Yom Kippur.

As a teen I went through high school in an American school in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. The school administration had to frequently send out special requests to parents of children observing Ramadan to at least let them drink water during the day. Temperatures averaged 90 degrees during the summer, easily getting to 100, so we had lots of kids, particularly girls, fainting left and right. At the same time, while we weren’t forced to fast during the day time, we weren’t allowed to eat in public during the day as one of the religious police could take objection to that. That last rule/request made no sense because I remember the Baskin Robbins and Dunkin Donut stores being open 6AM-9PM even during Ramadan.

[…] contact-me Jews or Muslims: Who has it tougher while fasting? […]

I used to work with a number of African Muslims in a grocery store. Man, these dudes had it rough. Imagine hauling boxes all day, often in a sweltering storeroom, and not drinking a drop of water. FOR A MONTH! A cruel, cruel fate if you ask me. As a Jew, you can take the day off and lounge around for the day. No contest.

People living in the Moslem world also have the pleasure of being woken by their local imam(s) at 3:00 am to start their morning chores, 4:00 am to announce the beginning of the fast, 5:00 am to announce the beginning of the day. I slept from 12am-3am each night the three weeks I was in Afghanistan during Ramadan. Then, you get to deal with cranky people for the rest of the day.

Ramadan wins, hands down.

Ramadan, no contest. I am currently fasting for the past two weeks or so and am getting a little cranky from it all. Nothing like being sleep deprived, hungry, and thirsty for a month to make you nice and chipper.

let’s ask the palestinians.

[…] I’m a skeptic, so I don’t know whether to believe Beth. She swears that she can predict how harsh the coming winter will be, just by measuring the thickness of the Old Farmer’s Almanac! Thanx t’ www.tomslake.com Who has it tougher - Jews observing Yom Kippur or Muslims observing Ramadan?Yes, both require fasting. What about Lent? I guess it’s “chopped liver” - with a few exceptions… POLL RESULTS […]