With less than a week to go before the start of the Holy Month, \"Rihet Ramdhan\" - the scent of Ramadan - is spreading across the entire Maghreb region. Algerian traditions may vary, but all are joined together by one common goal: making the Holy Month special. Although the modern world has had its effects, families hold out as best they can against the winds of change andf cling on to their old habits.

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The most visible aspect is the food. Families spend and spend, sometimes running up debt, to make sure that the month is as good as it could possibly be.

Diouls and katayef (pastry) are in particularly high demand to prepare bourek or brik, a kind of Algerian-style hamburger, as well as traditional cakes. In the past, these products were made by hand, but required a lot of time and space. The majority of families now buy them in the markets for convenience. During the Holy Month, many women showcase their culinary skills. Men eat. A lot.

Cakes are eaten to excess during the evenings. The semolina and almond-based kalbellouz or chamia, or the semolina and honey-based zalabiya are found in plentiful supply throughout the month.

In this month of culinary madness, even the crockery is different. Many families love to eat from earthenware plates with wooden spoons.

In the east, families rush to mills to get hold of fric, the crushed wheat used for chorba, served as an appetiser to break the fast. Souad, a teacher from Batna, swears by his local fric, saying it is the best.

\"Not true,\" responds Kamel, a bank clerk from Constantine. \"The fric from Constantine is the best. You want proof? The mills have been working in the old town for centuries.\" The people of Tebessa and Souk Ahras have more to say about their own fric.

 In the centre, and particularly Algiers, even though the fric chorba is still an essential dish, the majority of born-and-bred Algiers families continue to stand by their own chorba, \"with vermicelli, or hand-made noodles, and in a white sauce for me!\" insists Fettouma, a housewife from the old walled city. 

Further west, no-one is interested in fric. Here, it is hrira, a vegetable soup of Moroccan origin, which reigns supreme. The nearer one gets to the Moroccan border, the more striking the resemblance. \"Every bird sings its praises,\" says Houari, a jeweller from Oran. \"I can\'t imagine Ramadan without hrira.\"

Since Algeria is the country of the deglet nour, one of the best date varieties in the world, people eat the fruit to break the fast, along with a glass of curdled milk. But speculators buy up the supply as the Holy Month approaches so that they can inflate the price considerably.

\"People turn into traders at Ramadan. They make as much money as they can, knowing full well that people are obliged to buy,\" complains Rabie, a family man who started stockpiling basic products before the price hikes kicked in.

The trade ministry has had to import significant quantities of red meat in order to hold down the prices, but Rabie says \"it\'s not just red meat that\'s going through the roof\".

\"Vegetables, fruit, juices... nothing can withstand the desire of these part-time traders to get rich,\" he adds.

In Morocco, citizens are also concerned about the rise in prices. 

\"I do not like to use canned tomatoes in harira, which is a soup of major distinction, and I hope that the government will make sure that grocers keep the price of tomatoes within 3 dirhams,\" says housewife Khadija.

Families in Morocco rely on harira to the extent that they start acquiring its ingredients before Ramadan. They prepare chickpeas and store them in bags inside the freezer to facilitate the preparation of harira every day. They do the same thing with tomatoes.

Advance food preparation is also a long-standing tradition in Tunisia. Well before the Holy Month, families begin stockpiling provisions, or oula. Oula is an extension of a social heritage known to both rural and urban areas. It is an ancient method that was used to face droughts, wars, natural catastrophes and difficult living conditions.

\"The summer oula is a known heritage which is difficult to do without, especially in this time when prices are very high,\" Hayet Warech confirms to Magharebia. Her family inherited the preparation of oula from generation to generation, she says.

In her house, neighbours and relatives were busy preparing oula in an atmosphere dominated by laughter and joking comments.

\"This is an opportunity for us to meet, help each other and take turns preparing food every day in one of the houses, so that this period is spent in the best of circumstances, without any pressure whatsoever,\" she explains.

Oula in Tunisia has many provisions, such as couscous, chorba soup of barley, hot pepper, harissa condiment and spices tabel, karwia, and korkem. Assma Ben Salem, Jamila Guermani and Najet Sayhi have gathered in Hayet\'s house to prepare couscous.

\"It\'s a difficult and tedious procedure and it requires a lot of time and patience, but in return it provides necessary food for the family,\" Najet says. \"It provides clean food for the family, free of all aspects of pollution, and also, it is affordable, especially when manufactured food is so expensive.\"

Samira, from the city of Kairouan, has been earning extra money making oula for more than 15 years. Relatives and friends flock each year asking her to prepare what they need.

\"Every year I prepare all types of oula with large quantities of couscous and chorba soup and spices such as chili and harissa to provide the needs of my clients,\" she tells Magharebia.

In Libya, people also stockpile food weeks ahead of Ramadan. Families buy new cooking utensils and women buy fruits and vegetables before the prices go up.

Dates and milk are essential to the dinner table of Ramadan, as well as seed and dried fruit concoction bsisa, Libyan Ghaida Touati tells Magharebia. Families often have khechaf or asida for Suhur. Khechaf is a type of fig-based sweet served chilled. Asida is one of the most popular sweets and it is a staple in Libya for special occasions.

During the past few years in Ramadan, evening gatherings in tents have become common on the public streets of Tripoli. Even though shops; cafes and restaurants remain open till the early hours of the morning, the tents set up in the capital city draw many people.

Gaida says that these tents, which offer free meals to those in need and fasters who do not have families, \"reflect the interdependence of Libyan society and the people\".

This same sense of connection between people is evident across the Maghreb.

\"It\'s the only month where everyone eats at the same time, around the same table,\" explains Nassima, a student at Algiers University, summing up the magic of this Holy Month.

Source: Magharibia.com