How Ramadan festivities in the district have changed over the last 60 years

Mohammad Nazir, of High Street in Heckmondwike, came to England in November 1963 at the age of 15 years old as a second generation migrant from Pakistan.
Mohammad Nazir, of Heckmondwike, holding a 1970s wooden engraved inscription of verses from the KoranMohammad Nazir, of Heckmondwike, holding a 1970s wooden engraved inscription of verses from the Koran
Mohammad Nazir, of Heckmondwike, holding a 1970s wooden engraved inscription of verses from the Koran

He was part of a large group of Indian and Pakistani nationals who were encouraged to come and work in England’s mills throughout the post-war period of the 1960s and 1970s due to a severe labour shortage across the whole country.

As someone who now makes up a dwindling generation of men, Mr Nazir agreed to be interviewed for the Kirklees Faith Network’s “Heckmondwike Stories in a Suitcase” project.

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In this special interview, Mr Nazir has spoken to the Reporter Series about what it was like to fast in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan during the 1960s.

He said: “Ramadan was a very different experience when I first arrived in England, and then into the local Heavy Woollen area during the early 1960s.

“As one of many second generation migrants who came from the Sub-Continent, we had very little knowledge about our religion, Islam, simply because there were no mosques open at that time in Dewsbury, Batley or in Heckmondwike.

“Muslim adherents follow the lunar ‘Hijri’ calendar, So the start dates for the month of Ramadan, as well as the different Eid festivals, tend to change every year, unlike Christmas which has one fixed date.

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“These days, we have got used to having annual Ramadan prayer timetables being printed by every mosque. The time-charts are given out free to the congregations just a few days before the holy month of fasting is about to start. Worshippers can collect them from their local mosque’s reception foyer.

“Thanks to these charts, each family has information on the exact times for dawn (when the fasting begins) and for sunset (when the fasting is due to end in the evening). Everything is clearly written, along with ‘Namaz’ prayer hours on the Ramadan timetable.

“The younger generation can even download an exact electronic replica of their local mosque’s timetable from the mobile phone’s WhatsApp.

“All the information is given by the observatory in Greenwich.

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“But we obviously did not have such facilities during the Sixties. Trying to find out the time in those days was not an easy task.

"In most cases, anyone who wanted to fast during those Ramadans had to use their own judgement by looking out of the bedroom window at the sky - just to find out when it was time to begin the fasting!

“We would also stand on our doorstep in the evenings during the summer months to try and ‘figure out’ the time for sunset - so that our fasting could end for the day, and Iftari food be eaten. But it was very difficult, especially since the weather in those days always used to be cloudy and damp.

“Trying to make sense of the situation was a particular challenge, especially during the short dark winter months!

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“There was no insulation in the small terraced houses which we owned. We also had to live without central heating. Double-glazed UPVC framed windows had not even been designed. Boilers were non-existent.

"So the properties were extremely cold, especially in the early hours of the morning when we used to get up just before dawn to begin our daily fasting.

“You could feel the cold air coming through the single glass window frames.

“Coal had to be brought up from the cellar to put in the fireplace. Yet, we would still have to wait for a while until the whole living room had got warmed up. The rest of the property remained cold.

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“Water from the taps was always freezing cold. So a large quantity had to be warmed up in a big steel pan!

“Warm running tap water is taken for granted these days. But our generation learned to really appreciate the true value of hot water in that post-war period.

“It was in these tough conditions that we had to get up before dawn to start fasting.

"Our usual early-morning Ramadan ‘Sehri’ meal was a simple cup of tea, along with one chappatti known in Urdu as a ‘parata’ with some butter over it. In English, the name for ‘parata’ is pancake.

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"We lived on this early morning Ramadan ‘Sehri’ meal for up to fifteen hours!

“Otherwise there was no eating or drinking water throughout daylight hours until sunset in the evening.

“Yet, our Muslim faith and the deep love for our religion kept us strong in that tough period.

"No-one wanted to miss out on the yearly Ramadan fasting even though we had very little knowledge about other aspects of the Islamic religion at that time. What we did however clearly understand even during those years of the 1960s is that Ramadan was a very special time for us.

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“As a second generation arrival I, like everyone else, worked from Monday to Friday in the mills.

"I worked a twelve hour shift at a local textiles place called ‘T. Smiths’ based in Batley. The long twelve hour ‘nights’ shift was my routine for seven years even during the months of Ramadan.

“What I did know even at that time was a Muslim should not make a fuss about going without food and water in Ramadan, or make demands for adjusting their daily work pattern whilst fasting.

“I made every effort to make sure my working day was to continue as normal throughout the holy month.

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“An important part of Muslim culture is to end the day’s fasting at sunset. This ritual of ending or ‘closing’ the fast is known as ‘Iftari’.

“In the year 2022, it is customary for families to get together at home in the evening as the sun is about to go down. The prayer call in beautiful soothing Arabic coming out of a digital radio (with frequency digits connected to the local mosque) can be heard in the living room’s background.

"All sorts of mouth-watering Indian dishes are on the table. The selection of foods and cuisine is so vast that today’s faithful are spoilt for choice.

“A tray of tasty Arabian dates is also ready to eat. The dates are first to be eaten before anything else.

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“Everything can be easily bought from the local corner shop. There are now even Muslim owned bakeries making fresh cream cakes.

“Yet, there was no wide choice available during the 1960s or Seventies decades. Iftari in those days was usually a modest plate of fresh fruit, mostly apples, bananas, grapes, and perhaps some plums.

"We were lucky to have a lovely Indian-Gujarati shopkeeper called Haji Mohammad Ibrahim from Savile Town in Dewsbury driving his van into Heckmondwike to sell us dates outside our homes.

“Besides the fresh fruit, the Iftar meal in those days was mostly spicy vegetables. Cauliflower, potatoes, spinach or coriander were the most common types of vegetables cooked in our homes. But no ‘Dhaal’ - better known in English as lentils - could be found anywhere.

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“Muslim dietary laws are similar to the Jewish guidelines around what to eat and what not to eat. Kosher meat is prepared and sold by Jewish butchers. Halal meat is prepared by Muslim faith communities in the exact same manner. Yet there was no Halal meat being sold in our time during the 1960s because no Halal butchers’ shops were open in that period.

“Some of us could treat ourselves to a Halal ‘Murghi’ - a hen - if we were lucky on Wednesday and Saturday evenings. The ‘Murghis’ were sold for about five pence in some local poultry farms. They were taken home alive - and were then cooked according to Muslim Halal tradition.

“But on the whole our Ramadans were very modest compared to today. Everything is rather extravagant these days whether it happens to be Christmas, Ramadan or Eid.

“We had no prayer facilities over fifty years ago as no mosques had been opened. But I can still remember hearing rumours on the actual day when the festival Eid-Ul-Fitr was being celebrated of a large room in Batley Town Hall being hired for congregational ‘Eid Namaz’ prayers.

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“So I and some of my friends would leave home early in the morning after having a bath and donning new clothes.

"We often made our way to Batley with a small freshly washed clean towel in our carrier bags - hoping to use it as a prayer mat. But we always got there late and ended up missing our Eid prayers.

“There were no landline telephones in most people’s homes. Mobile phone technology, the internet, and messaging through different apps was something very futuristic and still over six decades away. So it was impossible to find out the exact time for Eid Namaz prayers.

“Frustrated and upset, we would then walk all the way across Bradford Road towards Dewsbury town centre hoping to find a room in Dewsbury Town Hall open just in time for us to attend our Eid Namaz prayers.

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“Yet again it was usually a wild goose chase, though sometimes we were lucky enough to find space at the back in a crowded room.

“After prayers, it was time to head home for an Eid meal.

“Again everything on the table was modest compared to today’s family Eid gatherings. The main meal would be cooked ‘Murghi’, and perhaps if we were lucky, steaming hot brown Pulao rice.

"Our women had not yet come to England. So the men did all the cooking, as well as the washing up afterwards of all the empty plates.

“After the meal, each one of us would wonder what our parents were likely to be doing in Pakistan on the day of Eid-Ul-Fitr? How would they be celebrating the festival?

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"All we could do was to wonder and think about them because there were no telephone lines in our homes. Even if there had been telephones, it would have been very difficult to get a long distance connection from Heckmondwike to Pakistan since the technology was still very poor quality.

"WhatsApp facilities are used today by every community to make quick easy contact with loved ones and family members who live far away.

“We lived without WhatsApp. The only thing we could do on the day of Eid-Ul-Fitr in those post-war years was to think fondly of close loved ones with tears in our eyes.

"This is how we used to live in those Ramadan months of the 1960s.”

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