Ancient Ramazan culture at risk of dying out

Culture of beating canisters to awaken citizens at sehri gradually declines


Qaiser Shirazi March 31, 2023

RAWALPINDI:

The 150-year-old tradition of beating tin canisters to awaken the citizens for fasting at sehri time in the holy month of Ramazan has gradually died out.

It was common practice in the subcontinent during the British era to beat tin canisters by a group of people to wake people up for fasting before sunrise.

The culture persisted even after Pakistan was founded; however, this ancient and traditional system has now been replaced by social media including Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram and other applications.

At present, only a few people are seen keeping the ancient tradition of beating the canisters through the streets alive. This ancient culture of Punjab continued for a century and a half. Later, the traditional drummers also joined it. In every Ramazan, these groups would beat the tin drums with wooden sticks in every season including summers, winters or even rains while shouting “People wake up, it's time for sehri” at the top of their voices, waking people with their loud voices to get ready for sehri.

There was no tradition of bringing sehri items from outside at that time as the meals were prepared at home. There used to be dozens of groups that used to wake up people at sehri. They would arrive in the streets of each area separately two and a half hours before sehri to awaken people.

In the last few years, this culture started to decline while this year it seems to be almost dead.

This year in the first five days of the holy month, only one middle-aged resident has been spotted walking the streets while carrying an empty tin canister around his neck and beating it with wooden sticks, however, he does not make a sound with his mouth to awaken the residents. Meanwhile, in many streets, he has been strictly prohibited from beating the canisters and making loud noises.

This person's name is Muhammad Abdullah. He is 52 years old. He told this reporter that he is a resident of Teli Mohalla. It was his family’s job to wake up the fasting people by beating the tin canisters at sehri time. His grandfather, father, uncle and elder brother had also been waking up the fasting people by beating up the canisters in the streets of Rawalpindi since 1950.

“Our entire family shared different areas,” he said and added that after performing their duties for a month, they would go in the streets early in the morning of Eidul Fitr and collect Eidi [remuneration] from each household for performing the job.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31st, 2023.

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