Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Hmm. Not At All Sure About This.

Yesterday I was out grocery shopping. This is not something I enjoy but, hey, we all have to do it - and I was at our local Coles store if anyone is interested. I was focused on just working through my list, checking out the shelves to get out of there as quickly as possible when I looked up and there, at the end of one of the aisles, was a huge red sign with white printing that read 'Happy Ramadan'.

Now I'm not a follower of Islam and so I may be quite wrong but this struck me as bizarre. Is this an appropriate response to a time of prayer, fasting and self reflection? It didn't feel that way to me. In fact it felt like a cynical marketing attempt to cash in on a religious observance without any grasp of what it is about. I suppose there may have been one of those end of aisle displays where they place random goods they want you to impulse buy but it certainly wasn't obvious and I wasn't interested enough to look given I was already having enough trouble getting Pisces to keep moving. He's a man who likes to look at everything in search of new novelties and goodies as well as bargains and, as I'm more interested in speed, it can make for a stressful experience so we rarely shop together.

Anyhow, when I got home I looked up appropriate greetings during Ramadan and not one suggested 'happy'. Instead they were all about wishing for blessings like 'May every year bring you good health' or 'Blessed Ramadan'. Not a single 'happy Ramadan" appeared anywhere I looked.

The thing is I could understand if they were referring to the fast breaking feast of Eid al-Fitr at the conclusion of Ramadan when 'Happy Eid' is one of the acceptable greetings but 'Happy Ramadan' felt simply wrong.

I'd be interested in what you think, though. Was this appropriate or not?

2 comments:

Jo said...

I agree, totally inappropriate. Funny about you and shopping you two are totally the opposite to us. I am more like Pisces as you know.

Helen V. said...

Well they do say opposites attract, Jo. Maybe that's why we settled on our respective partners.