"I've already told the physio to have some dates ready. If the game is stopped, I'll try to eat and drink something before halftime. If I can't, I'll do it in the locker room," explains Yaya Sidibe, a player for Badalonawho plays this Sunday at six in the afternoon. By the time the match begins, it will have been almost 12 hours since the defender of Malian origin last ate or drank water: Sidibe is Muslim and – like the vast majority of footballers in Catalonia who are followers of Islam, as in the case of Lamine YamalOmar el Hilali and Azzedine Ounahi are observing Ramadan, which began on Wednesday. This means that for a month, sacred to them, they will fast from sunrise to sunset, which on Sunday is scheduled for 6:34 p.m., and will rise in the early hours to eat and pray.

This Wednesday, February 18th, the calendar marks an unusual coincidence: the simultaneous start of Catholic Lent and Muslim Ramadan. This exceptional occurrence is solely due to a matter of calendar calculation. Lent depends on the Christian liturgical calendar and the variable date of Easter—which is always celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox, making it fall between approximately March 23rd and April 25th—while Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, based on the solar calendar, which is about ten to twelve days long each year, making it movable from year to year. Because they follow different calendars and progress at different rates, Lent and Ramadan only sporadically coincide in the Gregorian calendar, as they do in 2026. This simultaneity invites us to ask how these two central periods for the two major religions are similar and how they differ.

The tagine is the most typical and traditional dish of the Moroccan cuisineWith permission, of course, from couscous, a staple in the cuisine of the entire Maghreb and North Africa, in countries such as Egypt, Algeria, and Mauritania. Tagine, on the other hand, is more exclusive and distinctive to Morocco. It's a type of stew steamed in a clay pot with a conical lid, usually made with only vegetables, fish, or, above all, beef, lamb, chicken, or even camel meat. Of course, the best place to taste this dish is by traveling to its country of origin, but in Catalonia, home to more than 200,000 people of Moroccan origin, you can also find very good dishes. In the Girona region, an authentic and popular restaurant to try is La Trobada, run by Fatima Zohra, in Crespià (Pla de l'Estany), a small town of 250 inhabitants, on the bed of the Fluvià River, between Banyoles and Olot. Last week, Zohra won first prize in the Tagine competition held in the Girona Gastronomic Forum.

On March 30th, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar will end. From that day on, Muslims will once again be able to drink, eat, and have sex during daylight hours. Ramadan, which commemorates the month-long revelation of the holy book, the Quran, by God to the prophet Muhammad in the desert, will end. During this March, more than 600,000 Muslims living in Catalonia, primarily from the Maghreb, sub-Saharan Africa, and Pakistan, will change their daily habits: they wake up earlier than usual and force themselves to fast and abstain for much of the day.

Two splendid tables occupy half of the dining room. Sali and Nadia, who are sisters, have taken care of every detail. Today is the first day of Ramadan And, in addition, two journalists come to the house. Avocado and banana smoothie, tea, harira (which is a soup that has everything except pork, obviously), sweets, empanadas and dates, as is the Muslim tradition. Sali's children, Yassin, eight years old, and Rodayna, ten, look at the table as if they had also gone all day without food, but they are too young to fast. "I tried to do Ramadan, but I turned on the television and on all the channels they were eating... and I got hungry," says the frustrated little boy while the family laughs.

The start of Ramadan fluctuates each year because the Islamic calendar follows the phases of the moon. A moon-sighting committee in Saudi Arabia is in charge of determining when the holy month begins: the first day of the month to the day after the sighting of the new moon. In Catalonia, from 5:37 a.m. on Monday, observant Muslims fast until the sun sets at 6:53 p.m. It will end on April 9.

Next week begins Ramadan, the month in which believers in Islam must fast during the day, abstaining from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex. This fundamental pillar involves a hustle and bustle of daily life: you must get up before dawn to breakfast and you often go to sleep late because having lunch With the setting of the sun, dinner must necessarily be later. The appetite lost during the day leads to preparing and eating copiously, also to compensate for the caloric deficit of the day. It is the month in which Muslims eat the most, in fact, and family spending on food can increase by 50% to 100%. In other words, as bikini operation It doesn't work.

Next week begins Ramadan, the month in which believers in Islam must fast during the day, abstaining from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex. This fundamental pillar involves a hustle and bustle of daily life: you must get up before dawn. breakfast and you often go to sleep late because having lunch With the setting of the sun, dinner must necessarily be later. The appetite lost during the day leads to preparing and eating copiously, also to compensate for the caloric deficit of the day. It is the month in which Muslims eat the most, in fact, and family spending on food can increase by 50% to 100%. In other words, as bikini operation It doesn't work.