Ramadan: The View from Fort Worth, TX, USA

I found the Fort Worth Star Telegram blog pages, where Paul Bourgeois wrote a blog called ‘Ramadan, here I come!’

He writes that his view of Ramadan is that it is about fasting, quality family time, and contemplation, and that he intends to do all these things this Ramadan.

He then goes on to write, ‘The toughest thing might be trying to figure out how these people can possibly have a holiday without sales in all the stores?’

I tried to check on holiday sales in Dubai vs. Christendom.

In Dubai, 15% of all retail sales take place during the month of Ramadan. In the West, they only measure sales by the month, and the holiday season runs from the last week of November through the third week of December, so they have to report sales for all of November and December, which are about 25% of annual sales in the US, and 18% of annual sales in Canada.

An average month should see about 8% of annual sales, and two average months should see about 17%, so the Ramadan season has retail sales about 80% above average, while the Christmas season in the US or Canada has sales less than 62% above average.

In the West, during the Christmas season, preachers will exhort their flocks that the season is not about parties and shopping.

And in the Islamic world, during Ramadan, imams and mullahs will exhort their people to recall that the holy month of Ramadan is not about parties and shopping.

So, Paul, there's not that much difference.