DAMASCUS, Syria — As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began Wednesday, many Syrians who observe the daily dawn-to-dusk fast that is broken with lavish family meals are struggling to find the festive mood and holiday warmth as the country’s bloody conflict rages for a third year.
In one rebel-held city, residents have resorted to begging for crumbs at a soup kitchen, while in a refugee camp on the Jordanian border, Syrians hounded by the desert heat and dust break their fast separated from relatives back home.
Reflecting the deprivation brought on by the war, the U.N food agency said that 7 million people were reliant on food aid. The fighting that has destroyed much of the country, combined with prices that have soared in recent months, have left many Syrians struggling to get by.
“People come by the kitchen just begging for scraps, it tears the heart,” said an activist in the rebel-held northern Syrian city of Maarat al-Numan.
He said activists were using a communal kitchen to distribute a simple Ramadan evening meal of rice, vegetable stew and soup to about 400 of the city’s neediest families. He identified himself only by his nickname, Abu Anas, fearing for his safety.
In the Zaatari refugee camp in the Jordanian desert, many of the 120,000 Syrians that live in the sprawling tent city home were homesick.
“Carrying out the Ramadan fast in this refugee camp is extremely difficult in every way imaginable,” said Abu Qusai, 32, a construction worker from the restive southern province of Daraa, where the Syrian uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011. “It is as dry as a bone and the dust is kicking up … we’re thirsty, dirty and very uncomfortable. We’re fed up.”
Ramadan is a time of reflection and prayer. Muslims are expected to abstain during daylight hours from food, drink, smoking and sex to focus on spirituality, good deeds and charity. The fast presents a physical and spiritual challenge every year, but particularly when the holiday falls during harsh Mideast summer when the days are longest and temperatures soar in some places to 120 degrees.
The Muslim lunar calendar moves back through the seasons, so Ramadan starts 11 days earlier each year under the Western calendar.
For most Sunnis and Shiites, Ramadan started Wednesday while others are expected to begin observing the holy month Thursday.
Despite its apparent harshness, many Muslims eagerly anticipate Ramadan, the month when they believe God revealed the first verses of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, to the Prophet Muhammad.
Residents in Damascus said the mood was better than last year, when rebels tried to overrun the capital. In the past few months, the military has gone on the offensive and has succeeded in clearing rebels from many areas on the edge of the capital as well as in the country’s center.
