+

By: Kathryn Rieb

GARANGAO BAGS

+Introduction to Ramadan and Garangao (رمضان) Ramadan/Garangao is the ninth month of the Islamic(الكرنكعوه)

calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from

eating, drinking, smoking and reproduction during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about

patience, spirituality, humility and submissiveness to God. Compared to the solar calendar, the dates of Ramadan

vary, moving backwards by about eleven days each year depending on the moon; thus, a person will have fasted

every day of the calendar year in 34 years' time. Muslims believe Ramadan to be a promising month for the

revelations of God to humankind, being the month in which the first verses of the Qur'an were revealed to the

Islamic prophet, Muhammad.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan) Edited by: Kathryn

+MPY Question

Is a handcrafted Garangao bag better than a store bought one?

+My answer:

It depends on whose point of view you’re looking from. Let’s evaluate…..

+

This is a store bought bag. Made by machine, it has a plain, woven color and well written words. The stars

have good spacing and the moon is well printed.

+

Here is the traditional bag, hand-made. The person who made this put a lot of effort into making this bag. They had to sew everything on, and when they wrote on the bag they had to place it in the center to made it look

good.

+My answer (continued)In my opinion, making a bag is better because you made

it. It is your creation and your ideas. You feel a personal satisfaction when you use the bag that you made,

instead of a bag that you bought from the store. Sure, the bag from the store might be better looking, but it

isn’t from your heart.