When you come to think of it, I don’t see any unique or defining feature of the way Moros celebrate Ramadan in the Philippines. When I was organizing an exhibit a year ago for the DFA Muslim Personnel Association to celebrate Eidl Fitr, I was thinking of what we could feature that could show the Filipino and/or Moro flavor of Ramadan in the Philippines. I tried looking for pictures that would convey this and I realized there is nothing to look for. We just decided then to use the exhibit to educate the non-Muslim personnel of DFA about the significance and meaning of Ramadan for Muslims, as well as featuring the Muslims in the Philippines, in a general sense.

Maybe that’s the disadvantage of being a Muslim in a country that still sees us as marginalized. Aside from the usual declaration of the President of a non-working holiday during Eidl Fitr, there’s not that much that the ordinary Filipinos know about fasting or Ramadan. When you ask them what they know about this important Muslim holiday, they would probably say, “di ba yun yung walang pasok pag matatapos na?”

In the media, there’s not that much effort to feature Ramadan, except during last year when GMA-7 did a series of news reports on SAKSI about Ramadan and coincidentally the reporter had a Muslim-sounding name. I also remember GMA-7 showing an “Eid Mubarak” greeting during a commercial break, but it was shown on an early morning time slot when not that much people were awake to see it and I never saw the greeting again later in the day. Oh, and there’s also the usual news article that appears on major newspapers like the Inquirer and the Philippine Star during the beginning and end of Ramadan…that’s it!

In my own small way, I’ve also tried to promote my religion and culture through the articles I’ve written. I could never forget the proud moment I felt when the article I wrote which narrates a blow-by-blow account of the experiences of a fasting Muslim UP student (wink! wink!) got published on the Philippine Collegian. That enabled UP students to get a close-up glimpse on the personal struggles of a Muslim as he tries to go about his daily routine while still maintaining to be faithful to his religious tradition.

I also never knew that there is really an existing Eid greeting card. If you can give birthday, anniversary, congratulatory, and Christmas greeting cards, why not give an Eid Card to your dear Muslim friend? When I first heard about it, it was through my colleagues in YMPN when they were selling it to fellow Muslims. But back then, I thought it was just one of their original ideas and I didn’t really think that people would actually buy it. But surprise, surprise…a fellow diplomat I befriended from the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs suddenly sent me one and I really appreciated that.

In our family, we started this tradition during Ramadan to showcase the holy month with pride to the outside world. During Christmas, our neighborhood would be so bright in the evening (except for us, of course) because of all the colorful and dancing Christmas lights and lanterns. Using the same Christmas lights, this beautiful and colorful “Happy Ramadan!” sign that my uncle made was bathed in bright, colorful, dancing lights, while displayed in front of our gates. And what made it even more stand out was that for once we were the only house in our street with Christmas lights and it wasn’t even December yet!
 
I know it is still “borrowed,” but at least I’m proud of our small efforts to give our observance of Ramadan in the Philippines a personal or unique stamp. Hopefully through this practice, non-Muslim Filipinos would have something to associate their memory of Ramadan in the Philippines and this could probably lead them to learn more about our traditions. This is the same way as the non-Egyptians (including me) associate Egyptian lanterns with Ramadan in their country.
 
Anyway, I’m really looking forward to experience for the first time an “Egyptian Ramadan” for this will enable me to learn more and appreciate the richness of the culture of various Muslim countries. And hopefully this will also enable me to learn even more about my identity as a Muslim. It also feels good that I would get to have my parents experience this with me as they will be visiting me this October.

To my family and friends, Happy Ramadan!

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The writer is currently the Third Secretary and Vice Consul of the Philippines to Egypt.