The 2024 Ramadan season starts began March 10 and ends April 9. This is an annual holiday for Islam that is known for daily fasting. The fast entails abstinence from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual relations during daylight hours to achieve greater “taqwa”, or consciousness of God. The word “Ramadan” itself comes from the Arabic term “Ramad / Ramida,” which means scorching heat or drought. Fasting symbolizes abstinence from eating, drinking, and other physical needs during daylight hours. Fasting is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, emphasizing piety, self-discipline, and spiritual reflection.
What Does Ramadan Celebrate?
Islam tradition believes that the Prophet Muhammad was given the Qur’an, Islam’s holy text, during Ramadan, according to Britannica.
What Do Muslims Do During Ramadan?
Ramadan is a time of self reflection, prayer and studying the Qur’an.
Muslims practice restraint, one of the five pillars of Islam, during Ramadan. Fasting is the most well known practice of restraint during Ramadan, but it can be interpreted to include sexual activity, immoral behavior and impure or unkind thoughts.
The restraint from these activities is practiced from sun up to sun down. During this time, Muslims may not eat or drink, including water. Muslims will generally eat breakfast before dawn and dinner after dusk. The early morning breakfast is called suhur, and is most commonly eaten at home. The evening meal is called iftar and is often a communal event. Iftar may take place at mosques or community centers.
Because fasting is physically taxing, exemptions are often given for children, elderly, pregnant women and the ill.
The end of the Ramadan fast is celebrated as one of the two major Muslim holidays, called Eid ul-Fitr, Gifts, celebrations, special prayers and sermons are common for Eid ul-Fitr.
The Windameare
Opportunity: Participate in a four-week artist’s residency at the South Porch Artist Residency in Summerville, South Carolina, dedicated to creating mono prints showcasing the local flora and marine life. These artworks will serve as the foundation for an exhibition and workshop in August 2024 at the Dayton Society of Artists’ Gallery.
Opportunity: Complete a Balanced Body Mat Training program to further develop knowledge of mat work and its benefits for the health and wellness of dance artists.
Opportunity: Create a new body of work in the medium of encaustic monotype for an upcoming solo show at The Dana Wiley Gallery in Dayton.
Opportunity: Create a new series of paintings inspired by her connection to the rocky and rugged coast during two weeks at the Golden Apple Art Residency in Harrington, Maine.
Opportunity: Promote and prepare works for an upcoming solo art gallery exhibition.
Opportunity: Create 10 new mixed-media fabric sculptures using recycled sarees worn by Indian immigrant women from Dayton to tell their stories, highlight their contributions to Dayton, and exhibit these sculptures at different areas in Dayton and beyond.
Opportunity: Take an online filmmaking workshop from the New York Film Academy to hone the art and craft of directing as it relates to filmmaking.
Opportunity: Create a body of work, “Celestial Pathways,” exploring the mythology of the Milky Way within the ancient mound building cultures of Ohio, which will be exhibited at three Ohio venues.
