.
.
Lammas + Ramadan
By Uncle Monty.
Photos By Alex Albion.
...
Half the businesses and shops at a two-mile section of
London's Old Kent Road seemed to shut down about
1:00pm or so as the owners and their employees
attended prayers at their local mosques on
the Friday before Holy Ramadan, 2011.
%%%
At the Somalia Relief & Islamic Cultural Centre
on the same road, the mosque was so packed that
Muslims just spilled out all over the pavement to pray
with their shoes and socks taken off and then left all
crumpled up together at the mosque door. Those that
were also late, just came and knelted down on the cold
concrete sidewalk without their usual prayer mats and
started to pray without even attempting to go inside the
centre to enact their prayers. There was nothing private
about their public acts of Islam. I was right there has
they prayed! What surprised me was to see the num-
ber of men who didn't look like Muslims at all. Never-
theless, of the almost three millions Muslims, and still
counting, inside the UK today, the vast majority are,
of course, nothing but foreign-born.
%%%
At The Somalia Relief & Islamic Cultural Centre
on the Friday before London's Ramadan. Most of
the Islamic Cultural Centres Now Scattered Far
and Wide Across The UK, Are In Fact Also
Miniaturized or Small Muslim Mosques.
.
Muslims At Prayer Despite Blocking The Sidewalk or Pavement.
%%%
On the other hand, Christianity's Lammas Day - August 1st
- conincides this year with the first day of Islam's Ramadan.
For a 1,000 years since before medieval times, Lammas has
been marked, in one form or another, as the day of first-
fruits or the first day of the Wheat Harvest. In the Anglican
Church such is recognized in The Book of Common Prayer
(BCP) and in the Holy Catholic Church homage is paid
at what is called "The Loaf-Mass" on Lammas Day.
%%%
Lammas Day in England, 1862. A Very Rare Historical Image.
%%%
In the 1894 classic edition of Rev'd Dr. E. Cobham
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable - which
I happily have among my extensive antiquarian book
collection - Lammas Day is duly recorded on page 725
of his erudite 1,324-page hardback and jacketed book.
This is what he famously wrote:
Lammas Day (August 1st) means the loaf-mass day.
The day of first-fruit offerings, when a loaf was given
the priests in lieu of the first-fruits. (Saxon) hlam-
mæsse, for hlaf-mæsse dag. August 1 Old Style,
August 12 New Style. Lammas-tide. Lammas time,
or the season when lammas occurs. Lammas.
At latter Lammas - i.e. Never.
%%%
Lammas Day in America, 2011.
%%%
As for Ramadan, The Guardian's Nour Ali in Damas-
cus writes: "Many who do not regularly attend mosque
do so during Ramadan, when prayers are believed to
carry more weight that at other times of year. He added:
"Ramadan, the (ninth) lunar month when people fast and
show their devotion to Allah in one of the five pillars of
Islam, is usually a quiet time. Business grinds to a halt,
with people struggling to get through the heat of the day
without water. But they do go to the mosque more often,
especially for tarawih, the special nightly prayers."
There is, of course, nothing remotely Islamic about
Lammas and there is nothing remotely Christian
about Ramadan, which lasts for thirty days. Ram-
adan is also known as Ramadhan or Ramzan.
%%%
In Scotland, Lammas is a quarter day and when quart-
erly rents are due. It is also a Bank Holiday for the Scots,
but not for the Limeys. In Wales, The Church in Wales
marks Lammas Day with Welsh services by the Anglican
Archbishop of Wales, The Most Rev'd David Morgan.
In other English-speaking countries around the world
at where there is a strong Anglican and/or Catholic
religious tradition, Lammas Day is also held in good
sway. In the old and traditional liturgical calandar
there are four quarters: Candlemas, Whitsunday,
Lammas, and Martinmas. In Islam, there are no
quarter days nor singing nor music nor scaramental
wine has found in most of the Churches of Christ.
%%%
Near My Sheltered Home On Lammas Day.
%%%
Lammas and Ramadan derive from entirely different
religious and social traditions that can never be
compatible with each other, naturally. The only
commonality between them is that folkz seek
to worship on such days by their particular faith.
Other than that, most Muslims have never heard
of Lammas and most Christians have only of
recent date even heard of something called
Ramadan, which the non-Muslim news media
always mentions but rarely says a word
about Lammas.
%%%
Even The Hungry Urban Fox
Visited Me at Lammas-tide.
%%%
As the Muslims Gathered At Their Mosques on
Friday Afternoon Before Ramadan, Bingo Players
Played for Popcorn At London's Darwin Court.
%%%
It pleases me to write for the first time on Lammas
Day, although as an avid English Anglican I have long
been aware of such a liturgical day or quarter day in
both the English Church and the American and the
Scottish Episcopal Churches. Even the Old Catholic
Church of European Old Catholics - and who are not to
be confused with Roman Catholics - have encountered
Lammas Day in their prayers. Lammas and Ramadan
will rarely conincide again with each other on the
same day. Since this year they do coincide, I just
couldn't resist writing something about them
on this August 1st, 2011.
%%%
Happy Lammas Day, Uncle Monty.
= Holy Ramadan, 2011.
.
Caption Photo: Uncle Monty At UK
Peace Pagoda. Photo By Gary Day.
.
.
.
Feedback & Comments:
.
.
Pay To Pray!
The Greed of Westminster Council Is Almost Criminal.
+
.
.
This Is The England of Today: My London Broken
Down Neighbourhood Now Swamped With African
Immigrants, Menacing Muslims & Frigid Foreigners.
.
Shariah Controlled Zones in UK.
Or The Muslim Twilight Zones!!
.
"With the British Government's refusal and fear to tackle
and disband the rise of illegal Shariah Courts, it is then only
a matter of time that such "courts" may begin to hire, train,
and arm their own police inside the UK. The situation could
then easily become a carbon copy of the Yāsir ʿArafāt's
founded Fatah and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's founded
Hamas police in the Middle East. And by that time,
it will be too late, baby, for the Muslims will
probably be UK armed to their Islamic teeth."
Alex Albion.
.
"Fatah" is a reverse acronym of the Arabic, Harekat at-
Tahrir al-Wataniyyeh al-Falastiniyyeh. The word
"Fatah" means "conquest by means of jihad [Islamic holy
war]", states the online American Jewish Virtual Library.
.
Muslim teenagers convicted of criminal damage after
spraying burkas onto scantily-clad models in Lynx poster.
.
.
.
{ Click on any image to Enlarge }
.
No comments:
Post a Comment