How Do Azerbaijani Muslims Celebrate Ramadan and Eid?
By: Annisa Fadilah, ASEAN Youth Organization
It doesn’t feel like half of the journey of the holy month of Ramadan with us. All Muslims in the world celebrate with great joy, including Muslims in Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan is a country located in the Caucasus region, where 95% of the population is Muslim. Just like other countries that welcome the month of Ramadan, Azerbaijan also has high enthusiasm for welcoming this blessed month.
So, how do Muslims in Azerbaijan celebrate the month of Ramadan? Here’s the information!
This year, Muslims in Azerbaijan will start celebrating Ramadan on April 2, 2022.
Just like in Indonesia, since the first day of fasting in Azerbaijan, the enthusiasm of the people can be seen from the nuances that can be seen in various parts of the city.
In welcoming the month of Ramadan, Azerbaijani people organize horse racing competitions, as a form of feeling to show their happiness. In addition, they also decorate the streets with various Ramadan attributes, and the community exchanges greetings related to the coming of the holy month.
During Ramadan, TV stations in Azerbaijan broadcast many religious programs to raise awareness about prayer, fasting, and zakat.
Many religious activities are also carried out in mosques in Azerbaijan. Usually, there are spiritual cleansing activities and also reading the holy verses of the Quran together. In some mosques you can also find iftar activities together. Of course, the enthusiasm of the residents in participating in this activity is very high.
After breaking the fast, the Muslim community in Azerbaijan also performs Taraweeh prayers at the mosque. The Imams convey religious messages through their sermons in the series of the taraweh prayers. Not only that, many charitable activities are also carried out in mosques during the month of Ramadan.
During Ramadan, Azerbaijanis also exchange gifts with their neighbors and offer food to the poor and needy. Azerbaijanis are known for their generosity, because they always prepare additional dishes to break the fast if at any time there are guests who come to visit.
When breaking the fast, they gather with family or relatives to eat iftar food together. While waiting for the time to break the fast, they usually read the holy verses of the Quran together. When breaking the fast, there are some typical foods that are usually served, but most of them break their fast by eating dates and drinking milk. There are also several types of soup that are usually served a lot, such as dolma, plov, and qovurma.
Dolma is a dish consisting of minced lamb mixed with rice and seasoned with mint, fennel, and cinnamon, and wrapped in grape leaves or cabbage leaves. While plov is a rice dish served with lamb or beef, onions, and carrots. While Qovurma is a cooked dish of several varieties, consisting of meat and fruit, spices, or vegetables.
During Ramadan, Muslims in Azerbaijan also build a lot of friendship with their relatives and friends. Especially for young people, they will visit their older relatives.
When visiting, they usually bring Azerbaijani specialties as souvenirs or as a meal together when breaking the fast, such as dates, sweets, pilaf. Pilaf is a dish of rice which is stir-fried with spices in oil (butter) until golden and cooked in broth.
For this reason, Ramadan is also the time that people look forward to, because it can be a time to gather together with those closest to them.
Eid Celebration
The celebration of Ramadan that Azerbaijanis are also looking forward to is Eid al-Fitr. All Muslims in Azerbaijan celebrate with great joy. People flock to the mosque to perform Eid prayers
After performing the Eid prayer, the community interacted with each other. Gather with family and relatives while exchanging gifts and also tasting Azerbaijani specialties.
After gathering with family, they visit each other’s friends and relatives. In Azerbaijani tradition, usually the younger children visit the older ones.
Just like in Indonesia, people in Azerbaijan also wear beautiful and colorful clothes to celebrate Eid al-Fitr. Children are also invited to playgrounds and entertainment venues.
On the celebration of this happy day, the community also pays zakat. For this reason, today is also the day that the underprivileged people look forward to. Because on this day, the wealthy in Azerbaijan will give a lot of zakat, infaq, alms to the poor.
People in Azerbaijan usually celebrate Eid al-Fitr for two or three days following the schedule set by the government.
That is a picture of how Muslims in Azerbaijan celebrate Ramadan. As a country where the majority of the population embraces Islam, the atmosphere of Ramadan in Azerbaijan is always filled with joy and high enthusiasm by its citizens (T/RE1)
Miraj News Agency (MINA)
