Taraweeh Nights

As Ramadan approach-eth I cannot help but to get a little nostalgic of Ramadans past-ya know, the frantic sahoors, the inhalation of iftar meals lol:-D  In Muslim majority countries I always have this visual in my mind of the guy (I don't know his name in Arabic) going through the streets at a certain time every night beating a huge drum to wake people up for suhoor followed by the blaring of multiple adhans echoing through the streets signaling the incoming Fajr prayer.  However, anyone Muslim in America knows that Ramadan in America is a completely different experience altogether.  Some of it good, some of it bad and some of it just comical in my opinion!  My fondest memories are me laying on the bathroom floor trying to catch some Z's while the water is running (faking wudu smh) only to be disrupted by a knock at the door-followed by-"Come on Zakia, suhoor is over in 10 min." and then me splashing water over my face to make it "appear" as if I had made a "good wudu".....alright parents, here's the trick to knowing whether or not your kids have made a "good" wudo...If you don't see water all over the bathroom sink and then see a trail of water marked footprints trailing from the sink to the bathroom floor, then your child did NOT preform a "good" wudo:-) Anyway, I digress once a again.  I would have to say-bar none though, that my favorite childhood memory of Ramadan were "taraweeh nights" it was the only time of year were we got to go someplace late at night (and on a on a school night at that) and idk, there is just something ephemeral about going to the masjid at night-I suppose because it doesn't happen during any other part of the year.  I remember when I was about six years old I begged my father if I could accompany him to the taraweeh prayer and he said that I couldn't go because I didn't have anything to cover my head with.  So, I proceeded to grab my little brother's kofi and ball it up into my pocket as we are leaving out the door.  While my mother is dropping my father off at the local masjid I pull the little rumpled kofi out of my pocket and stretch it over my 5 ponytails and proudly exclaim, "look daddy! I'm ready for taraweeh." He looked at me and sort of laughed and said,  "no, you need a scarf." Side note: Remember the style when women were ACTUALLY wearing kofi's as like a fashion statement-that was weird lol!  Anyway since that day forward I have been OBSESSED about what to wear for taraweeh.  It's actually not as easy as you would think-well not for me anyway. You want to wear something extremely comfortable (think about that heavy iftar meal you just had), something cool, and of course stylish-I mean it is taraweeh, it only comes once a year!  So I've been thinking about this thing and so far I have come up with two possible garment options.  Now keep in mind, I don't do dressy.  I live in the "laid back" South and dressy for me is adding accessories to something casual.  

The first option is the Safiya Dark Blue Denim Maxi Dress with Adjustable Sleeves  from Artizara.com (OSH did a wonderful review of this abaya HERE).  Which is this cute, lightweight denim maxi dress (caftan style) with waist shaping, rolled tabbed sleeves that can be adjusted to 3/4 length, mandarin collar, two actual chest pockets and two mock hip pockets, it also has a mock front placket that is accented with tan top stitching detail.

My second option is SR-S15-VS12 from Islamic Design House.com a flowy empire waist garment in a Viscose Jersey fabric. The only detailing is the plaited belt, which runs across the upper body.

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmm, So what do you guys think?

 

oooooooh, I had to add this two from Artizara as well......