Ramadan's moon

My first Ramadan in the Middle East, specifically in the UAE. A few days leading up to the holy month, everyone was abuzz with apprehension. For most of the ppl I met, it will be their first Ramadan in the middle east too. So many questions like: What happens if they catch you drinking water in the day? Can we still drink beer? And of particular concern to W and I, can we hold hands? Or can we only hold hands after sunset?

Everyday ppl waited for the elders to give the call for the start of the Ramadan. Here in UAE, the first day of the Ramadan is based on observations of the moon. "They are still watching the moon" said S, a young British lady I met in a bar on the final night before Ramadan. The elders gave the call the next day.

I generally don't have much to do during the day. W stays in the middle of the desert near the airport in a villa with his workmates. Apparently this place does not even have an address. I know it's called Khalifa City, a new development. So new, they have not gotten down to planting trees yet. For someone who grew up in a tropical island, its slightly depressing to see nothing but sand outside my window. I had been sick since I arrived due to an upset stomach, and had not gotten to car renting and driving around yet. So it was an uneventful day in the room of the villa waiting for my beloved to come home from work.

W arrived home in the evening, and we decided to drive out to the city for dinner. I got into the car, buckled up, and looked up, and in front of me was the most amazing moon I had ever seen in my life.

It was the new moon. The beginning of the moon's passage that also marked Ramadan. The slither thin crescent was like an arch carved out of the sky with the tip of a sharp blade shining defiantly in the night sky. I was surprised for a while. Why is it I don't remember the moon looking like this before. Was it because I never looked, or is it something one can only see in the middle east, or something that only happens on the first night of the Ramadan? I felt I understood the reverence for this new moon muslims have, if only for a bit. But it was enough to lift my spirits the rest of the night as we drove down the 30th to the Corniche for a bite.