Ramadan takes place just over a month, Lent is 40 days
⭐️HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW⭐️
- The religious times of Lent and Ramadan are currently taking place.
- CBC Kids News spoke to two teens who are making sacrifices as part of their faith.
- Both are using social media less.
- Keep reading to hear the long-term impacts these decisions can make. ⬇️⬇️⬇️
Imagine giving up one of your favourite things like a snack, a treat or even your phone.
Then imagine doing it not just for a day, but for an entire month or more.
Some kids and teens across the country and around the world are doing just that.
Lent and Ramadan are occurring at similar times this year.
Lent is the Christian season that involves 40 days of self-sacrifice in preparation for Easter, or Jesus’ death and resurrection. It started on Feb. 18.
Ramadan is the Islamic month of fasting, prayer and reflection to honour the revelation of the holy book, the Qur’an, to the Prophet Muhammad. It also started on Feb. 18.
Both Michael Leger, 17, from Kingston, Ontario, and Anahita Dehghani, 14, from Vancouver, British Columbia, are participating in their religion’s holy time.
They are giving things up that they enjoy, but don’t see it as a chore.
Rather, it’s an intentional choice to step back from something they love to make more room for faith.
Turning down digital noise
For Michael, these 40 days of Lent are a time to invest in his faith and listen to God.
For the second year, he has chosen to give up social media. This time, he has a plan.
“I made sure this year that all my friends had my phone number because that was an issue in the past where I couldn’t contact friends and, you know, I would miss things,” he told CBC Kids News in an interview.
Rather than filling gaps in time with endless scrolling, Michael said he turned down the “noise” of apps to listen to God’s calling, study for school and practise his instrument, the trumpet.
Michael said Lent is an example of looking at what is taking up space in your life and seeing how you replace it when it’s gone.
“So we take one aspect of our life and we realize, ‘OK, where do I not have God? And we say, OK, how do I fix that?’ And Lent is an open invitation to do that.”
Michael Leger took the time he would have spent on his phone scrolling through social media and replaced it by turning to God and practising music on his trumpet for a big audition. (Images submitted by Michael Leger)
With apps deleted for more than a week, Michael still sometimes finds he’ll open his phone, ready to scroll. It’s a challenge at times, but Michael wants to prove he is capable.
Now, when he goes to pull out his phone, it results in a moment of pause and reflection.
“I was about to go scroll, you know, and it’s difficult, but it’s freeing in a way, because now [it puts] into perspective for me how much time I spend doing that.”
As part of his Lenten sacrifice, Michael said he was able to dedicate more time to his instrument, and even auditioned at the University of Toronto’s faculty of music last week.
Talking, laughing and sharing time with family
Anahita’s parents have always told her preparing for Ramadan was like preparing for a party God is throwing.
“No matter how naughty or nice they are, it doesn’t really matter. Everyone’s invited no matter the circumstance,” she told CBC Kids News in an interview.
When you go to a party, you might be used to bringing a present.
Anahita said God doesn’t ask for presents. All he asks is for people to bring their best selves, and “kindness and patience and gratitude.”
Anahita and her family refrain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset each day.
Anahita said she sees the joy in sacrifice and preparing herself for ‘God’s party’ during Ramadan. She is inspired by those around her to push through the discomfort together. (Image submitted by Anahita Dehghani)
She said it is difficult, especially as sunset approaches.
The last two hours of her fast are the hardest, she said.
Rather than getting hangry — a combination of hungry and angry — she practises patience, kindness and gratitude for what she does have.
“When I feel hungry, it really reminds me to be thankful of the food that I have because usually any other day I would open the fridge, it would be full, but I’d feel like there was nothing to eat,” she said.
“But during Ramadan, it’s like everything is a delicacy and it should be cherished.”
A big strategy for Anahita is knowing she is not doing this alone.
“When you’re fasting together, you understand each other. If someone is feeling tired or hungry, everyone else knows that feeling, too. We support each other and help each other stay strong, especially during the harder parts of the day.”
Like Michael, Anahita also tries to use her phone less during Ramadan.
“Talking, laughing and sharing the experience together is more meaningful than looking at a screen,” she said.
What you can learn from making sacrifices
Fasting is a common aspect of many religions that serves as a way to remind people that our physical self is connected to our spiritual self, says Christine Way Skinner, a PhD student in theological studies at the University of Toronto.
Through fasting, people can be reminded of their want for God, as well as the struggles of other people around the world where fasting isn’t a choice, it’s daily life, said Skinner, who studied faith and sacrifice.
“[Fasting is] to remind ourselves of that privilege. So when we’re sitting around going, ‘Oh, I wish I could have my bag of chips or I wish I could, you know, be on my phone more’ … it reminds us that we actually have the option to do that.”
Sister Nancy Usselmann, a nun who focuses on media mindfulness and is a member of the Daughters of St. Paul in Los Angeles, California, wrote a book about how fasting can be extended to other common comforts, like social media.
Usselmann suggests kids examine what replaces something when it’s given up as part of Lent. Is it another distraction or something that builds them up, she asks.
“The fasting from our digital media really helps us find greater peace. Interior peace. Serenity. Greater joy,” she told CBC Kids News.
She said fasting from social media for six weeks, or about as long as it takes to change a habit, teaches discipline and self-control skills that will help all teens in adult life.
“We’re not born with these skills. We have to learn them. We have to practise. We have to grow to make it a habit.”
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