Ramadan cannon: A cheerful sound during the holy month
QNA
DOHA: The Holy Month of Ramadan has a unique spiritual atmosphere that can hardly be replicated in the rest of the months of the year. The Holy Month features exclusive religious rituals on the map of the Islamic world.
One of the traditions deeply entrenched with the holy month is the Ramadan cannon which launches the first sound shot when the time for the Maghrib call to prayer comes for Muslims to break their fast.
Speaking to Qatar News Agency (QNA), a writer and researcher in history and heritage, Mohamed Hammam Fikri said that Ramadan is the month of sacred whiffs, as well as good customs and traditions that nurture those traits during the whole month.”
According to some historians, the cannon is one of the most important traditions for the people of Qatar, as people fast and break the fast based on the sound of the cannon.
As for Qataris when sunset approaches, they sit around the iftar table, waiting for the canon sound as it coincides with the call to prayer. This is for the sake of verification and certainty, not to miss the obligation of fasting.
Qatari women were also asking the young ones to either go out to the yard or go up on the roof of the house moments before sunset to wait for the sound of the canon, or watch its flash and smoke rising in the sky, and inform them that the time for breaking the fast has begun.
Ramadan cannon was set in recent years in both Souq Waqif and the southern side of Katara, and in the past, it was set in several areas such as Al Koot Fort, next to the Eid prayer hall in Jasra, the old Salata area, the new Rayyan area, Al-Khalifat area, and until recently, on the Corniche (near the post office).
Currently, when it is time for the Maghrib call to prayer during the days of Ramadan, the cannon is set among the audience in Souq Waqif and Katara, who come to see it, especially children. On either side of it are four soldiers in uniform, on the right and the left, and they stand in a military arrangement behind the canon, waiting for the order to give the signal to launch the canon with the sound of the Maghrib call to prayer.
