Ramadan bazaars: Unnecessary extravagance?

By Fareeza Rashid

The holy month of Ramadan is upon us again. The ninth month in the Islamic calendar is the most anticipated period by Muslims all over the world. This is the month when Muslims not only refrain from eating and drinking from dawn until sunset, but also from a lot of other things such as obscene and irreligious sights and sounds as well as sexual activities. It is a month of cleansing; Muslims seek forgiveness for past sins, guidance and purify with good deeds.

It is also a month of provisions, spiritually and financially. In Malaysia, for Muslims especially the Malays, Ramadan also offers them business opportunities by participating in the highly celebrated Ramadan Bazaars, selling wide ranges of delicacies. Visitors of the bazaars could be seen coming in large droves of all Malaysian ethicities that come for the large variety of foods from local to international. Ramadan Bazaars are so looked forward to that people have even made it their mission to hunt for the best bazaar in their respective states, meaning that they go to different bazaars every other day, which leads one to think again, “What is the reason that people get so excited during the month of Ramadan?”

With their emergence in the 1990s and their ever growing popularity, the bazaars have made Ramadan more of a carnival-like festival with much ado by the vendors and the public.

True enough that with their hectic working schedules, many Muslims do not have time to prepare meals before the Maghrib prayers, or sunset which is the time to break fast, therefore the solution is to buy food from the bazaars that offer a wide selection. As much as they are lifesavers, the bazaars’ wide selections of delicacies are also the root to excessive buying. Being spoilt by choice and driven by an entire day of hunger and thirst, one will have the tendency to buy more food than he or she could consume and as Maghrib comes, one does eat and drink more than he or she is capable of consuming because the spread is already before them.

If this happens, it will turn a person’s act of faith which is fasting for the entire day, into an act against Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) warning against excessive consumption after breaking fast. There is also the result of waste when one is unable to finish the food. The leftover food would be kept in the refrigerator for a couple of days before it gets thrown out. This would be the time when a person complains of having too much food, when there are hundreds or maybe even thousands who go to bed hungry.

In Egypt, national statistics have pointed to substantial increase in consumption of food and medications related to digestive disorders during the month of Ramadhan as compared with the monthly average in the rest of the year. (Abdel-Moneim Said (September 3, 2009), “Wasting Ramadan”, Al-Ahram Weekly)

Aside from the wasteful aspect caused by the influence of Ramadan Bazaars, a lot of cheating also occur, a known

risk when cooked foods in large amounts are involved because it also means high costs from the vendors’ parts. In order to cut cost and gain more profit, vendors cheat their customers by cooking with substitute ingredients. A customer known as Ana was lured into buying grilled chicken by the mouth-watering glistening coconut milk sauce which turned out to be made of corn flour that caused the sauce to be gooey and too disgusting to put in the mouth. She also bought some otak-otak (Malaysian style fish sticks) that turned out to taste of bland flour. There were also other complaints of curry puffs with less than a quarter of fillings as well as fried chickens that were refried from the day before and reduced in sizes day after day but with increasing prices. (http://littlemamadiary.com/peniaga-pasar-malam-bazaar-ramadhan-menipu/).  In the end, hungry customers go home with substituted foods and the vendors go home with their money.

This year we were shocked by the news of a Ramadan Bazaar in Jasin, Melaka being blown off by strong winds that left three dead and 18 injured only on the third day of Ramadan. Is this a sign? Call it superstitious, but one would not be surprised if this was caused by the excessive actions of people acting in the name of the holy month.