People used to carefully clean their homes beforehand, making everything ready for the entrance of the month-long feast.
Over 100 types of foods and 30 kinds of cookies and bread used to be prepared specially for this month.
People used to wake up at midnight for a meal at sahar-khani, special poems and supplications performed on the rooftops and through the interwoven alleys of cities.
Iftar -- the time for breaking the fast used to be announced by playing the naqareh, a long wind instrument that was played from minarets or cities’ towers.
Today, all these rituals have been forgotten, the Persian service of CHN reported on Tuesday in an article.
“Today, everything moves with haste and society is quickly transforming,” anthropologist Ahmad Vakilian said.
“However, TV could play a vital role in preserving these rituals,” he added.
Vakilian believes that all the special TV series prepared by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting for Ramadan are irrelevant.
“Sometimes, even violence is encouraged by the TV series,” he lamented.
“Cultural officials are neither concerned about our culture and cultural history, nor are they acquainted with this important aspect of society at all,” he stated.
He believes that traditions and customs can still be maintained in harmony with today’s modern lifestyle and rituals can be updated.
“The traditions and rites of Ramadan can at least be documented through information gathering. Although documentation does not update the rituals, the information collected can be used as a resource for anthropology students,” Vakilian said.
Westernized countries have been plagued with modernity, so they have been forced to learn how to respect their traditions and customs, he stated.
He said that their modern coffee shops have been turned into venues for their traditional performances.
“But we are increasingly shrinking from our traditions and customs,” Vakilian lamented in conclusion.
MMS/YAW
END
MNA