Ramadan Zaman in Jordan .. Cannon Iftar, “Al Masakbeh”, and the storyteller’s stories

As soon as seven o’clock strikes on the hour of the Jordanian capital, and the sun sets during the day of a new day of Ramadan, and the loudspeakers of the mosque begin to recite verses from the Holy Quran and invocations spiritual, until the Jordanian Army, Islam al-Momani, prepares to fire a Ramadan cannon to mark the fasting of the fasting people.

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Al-Momani fills the cannon with gunpowder and explosive materials, and with the Maghreb’s first call to prayer, the sound of Ramadan cannon echoes, mixed with the sounds of hissing and applause from the cannon spectators around. him. and viewers from the balconies of the houses and the nearby mountains that surround it.

In Amman Municipality Square in the Ras Al-Ain region, Jordanian children, adults and families gather around the Ramadan cannon, which the armed forces have designated for this mission, take commemorative photos with the cannon and shake hands with the soldiers present at the scene.

A tradition of Ramadan

The canon of Ramadan – which has long waited for previous generations to hear its sound to mark the breaking of the fast after fasting on a Ramadan day – has today become a Ramadan tradition and a tradition that has been passed down through the Jordanian generations. and preserved since the Kingdom’s inception 100 years ago, having been inherited from ancient Ottoman traditions and customs under Ottoman rule in Jordan and the Levant.

The availability of modern technological means, such as alarms and cellular devices, which prevent generations from waiting to hear the cannon of Ramadan prompted the Jordanian authorities to stop firing the cannon for years, until the Ministry of Tourism, the Municipality of Amman and the armed forces return. this Ottoman custom in 2019.

Habits have changed

Yusef Al-Sabti accompanied his wife and two children to witness the Ramadan cannon firing, and he told Al-Jazeera Net: “The Ramadan cannon makes us feel the atmosphere of Ramadan that we miss due to the closures and night curfew. “

He added: “We miss many Ramadan customs and traditions due to technological changes in recent years. As an extended family, we no longer attend a Jordanian series due to the availability of cellular devices. which give the person the freedom of what they want to watch, and we lack the spiritual atmosphere in Tarawih prayers due to the curfew.

The Jordanian authorities imposed a curfew during the last months of Ramadan, extending like the Maghreb prayer at seven in the evening until six in the morning of the following day, and the execution of the dinner and the taraweeh prayers in the mosques has was banned, in order to avoid any other mix between Jordanians to face the epidemic of the Corona virus.

Ramadan zaman

Al-Sabti’s wife, Manal Al-Arja, agrees with her husband that “Ramadan was once more beautiful because it was more intimate, loving and close between relatives, neighbors and relatives. After that, visit relatives or meet in public parks, and buy things for suhoor.

Neighbors in rural areas and working-class neighborhoods used to exchange food dishes before sunset, a call to prayer during Ramadan, according to a social custom called “al-masakba” depending on who lived it, so that the Iftar dinner became “open with its buffet” due to the variety of dishes from outside, and this Ramadan custom formed a state of familiarity, love and cohesion between people of the neighborhood and the region from different sources.

But this good habit is absent among the new generations, according to specialists, so that some people regard it as a kind of personal offense, which has increased the state of alienation between the residents of the same building and the adjacent apartments of the same building.

Technology and habits

Abu Mustafa al-Desi, 60, laments the old atmosphere of Ramadan and tells Al-Jazeera Net: “As technology advances and evolves, people’s customs and traditions change accordingly. In the past, meetings around a single station in the village or neighborhood cafe were hosted by a mobile device that allowed you to watch whatever you want and what you want from series and movies. “.

“We used to sit in downtown cafes in the past, listening to a storyteller’s stories, but now the storyteller and his beautiful educational stories in the old cafes can no longer be heard, as well. that the distress paper, the flower playing at the table and the domino, their customers are in retreat. “

“The new generation is found in cafes, but in electronic games”, he adds, “each of them brings a charger to their cell phone for fear of interrupting the game”.

And between the canon of Ramadan, the habit of the Sabbath, and the nights of Ramadan which have changed in quality and whose sessions have changed, the holy month of Ramadan remains different from the rest of the months, pending the disappearance of the plague Corona so Jordanians return to their beautiful Ramadan rituals and rituals with all their old and new details.