Life becomes nocturnal in Muslim month of fasting

By Mohammed Abbas

MANAMA (Reuters Life!) - It's well after midnight in a dimly lit beach-side park in Bahrain but the sound of screeching children at play fills the air. Mothers, fathers young couples and teenagers huddle between the trees.

And it's still early. During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, from boardrooms to playgrounds, life in the Gulf and many other Muslim countries becomes nocturnal.

Muslims do not eat or drink from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan, so many like to shop, see friends and book appointments after the evening "iftar" meal when each day's fast is broken.

"We always come to this park to play, but we only stay out this late here during Ramadan," said Jasim Ameer, as he played cards with friends by moonlight.

Hundreds of children tore around the play area of a nearby mall, well past what most Western parents would call their bedtime, as mothers shopped for clothes and jewelry at 1 a.m.

In nearby Kuwait, the stock exchange scheduled a news conference at a relatively early 10 p.m., while in neighboring Saudi Arabia patients book dental appointments up to midnight.

"It's fun, and we're used to it. We stay up all night, visit friends, do prayers, often till dawn. But that's only during Ramadan. Ramadan has its own program," said retiree Salman Saeed, drinking coffee with his wife in a mall.

Large corporations put on lavish "sohour" or "ghabga" feasts much later in the night after the iftar meals, where executives, government ministers and the media are known to schmooze into the small hours.