As the last few bags of clearance Halloween candy finally leave their shelves, and retail stores are setting up Christmas decorations without even waiting for Thanksgiving to end, the holiday season seems to be in full swing. During this season of commercialism and indulgent eating, one religious holiday involves celebration of a different kind.

Oct. 27 marked the beginning of the month-long Islamic holiday of Ramadan. More than a billion Muslims around the world, including 8 million in North America, celebrate it. The month is one of the most significant holidays of the Islamic faith because it commemorates Allah revealing the first verses of the Quran, the holy scripture of Islam, to the Prophet Muhammad in 610 A.D.

The entire month is meant for spiritual reflection and centering for Muslims who have come of age and have a distinctive way of commemorating it. They perform the sawm, or fasting throughout the entire month of Ramadan. They are not allowed to eat or drink anything — including water — while the sun is shining. The sawm is actually one of the five pillars, or essential beliefs and practices, of Islam.

“The whole month is supposed to help you get in touch with your faith and your religion,” junior Abir Chaudhry said. “We as Muslims believe it is a time when God’s mercy is at its highest, and so it is a time to focus on repenting and looking into your own life more.”

Families traditionally get up early for suhoor, a meal eaten before the sun rises. After the sun sets, the fast is broken with a meal known as iftar. The iftar is usually a celebratory time that is spent with family and close friends. Many Muslim students at Marquette spend Friday iftars with each other in the International Center.

Mike Goren, assistant director for campus international programs, said he is very glad that Muslim students feel comfortable using this space to celebrate Ramadan.

“It is a privilege to take part in some of those dinners and this certainly fulfills part of one of the missions we have,” Goren said.

Chaudhry said these Friday events bring most of Muslim students and some community members together.

“We are encouraged not to break the fast alone, and this gives us a chance to live out the spirit of Ramadan,” Chaudhry said. “We share our food, we share our faith, we share everything.”

During Ramadan, Muslim students have to find a balance between taking classes and performing the sawm.

“It is easy as long as I get out of class to leave early enough,” sophomore Zieneb Hamdan said. “I’m in Health Sciences, though, so I have a lot of labs in the late afternoon and sometimes I find myself rushing through them to leave to break my fast.”

Hamdan said the fast could take a toll on her schoolwork.

“You feel hungry so it is easy to lose your concentration,” Hamdan said. “You do not realize how important water is especially until you have to go with out it.”

However, Hamdan said the benefits of performing the fast outweighed the inconvenience.

“I definitely feel more spiritual,” Hamdan said. “You are able to get a lot of distractions out of your life.”

Chaudhry said she also found it tough but saw the value in it.

“That’s the whole point of it,” Chaudhry said. “You have to strive for it and it encourages self discipline.”

“You focus less on food and more on the important things in your life,” Hamdan said.

One of the purposes of the fasting is to help Muslims be aware of the hungry and the poor. Hamdan said she thought fasting increased her sense of compassion for the less fortunate.

“Your whole mindset changes — you have to be more patient and try to be less irritable,” Hamdan said. “You feel really sorry for the hungry because hunger does a lot to you — it’s hard to be yourself.”

A special prayer called the taraweeh is said at mosques at Friday evening prayer during Ramadan. The taraweeh, which means “night prayer,” is roughly a thirtieth of the Quran and is two to three times longer than traditional Friday evening prayer. By the end of the 30-day month, the entire Quran would be recited. When the fast and Ramadan end, it is celebrated for three days in a holiday called Eid-al-Fitr. Gifts are exchanged and there is a large celebration with family and friends.

Chaudhry said Ramadan is a time when she puts more emphasis on family.

“My family usually does not eat dinner together because everyone has things going on at different times, but during Ramadan we all break the fast together and no one is going anywhere,” Chaudhry said. “Muslims are also encouraged to invite people they do not know well or are not getting along with well to break the fast with them. It really brings the community together.”

Hamdan said there were some advantageous to celebrating Ramadan on a campus with a relatively low Muslim population.

“I think it is a bigger task when no one else is fasting around you,” Hamdan said. “It is challenging, but you feel better about it in the end and it is more rewarding.”