Ramadan Cookies – Dates and Prayer Rugs

Last week my family and I (along with 1.6 billion Muslims around the world) began the festive month of Ramadan, and in celebration, I created some Ramadan cookies. To be exact, I made dried date and prayer rug decorated sugar cookies!

If you're not familiar with Ramadan, it's a month where Muslims don't eat or drink (not even water!) from sunrise to sunset. We wake up super early in the morning to eat a large meal. Then it's nothing. Not a single morsel of food or drop of liquid until the sun sets.

Since Ramadan is in July this year, we're talking about nearly fourteen hours without any food or drinks. Eeeks! Fourteen hours without eating or drinking probably doesn't sound like something to be excited about, but Ramadan is a special month where we focus on spirituality, gratitude, and patience. It's also a time to celebrate traditions.

And tradition is exactly why I decided to make sugar cookies decorated like dried dates and prayer rugs. Muslims around the world open their fasts with dried dates because it's an ancient tradition, and prayer rugs are a natural choice because, as Muslims, we pray five times a day.

Prayer rugs come in all shapes, sizes, and materials. My four-year-old daughter even has a mini one! Most of our prayer rugs happen to be maroon and gold. So my daughter insisted that the sugar cookie replicas look just like the ones we have at home.

The girls have been devouring these cookies all day long, and I've been eating them non-stop every night! What a sweet way to celebrate the beginning of such a special month for our family.

This post is linked up to the following parties:

Buns in My Oven – What's Cooking Wednesday

Chase the Star – The Creative Connection