How Lent and Ramadan unite fasting Londoners

For the first time since 1993, Ramadan and Lent have started more or less at the same time, but how different are these seasonal traditions?

As the sun starts to set in Marylebone, central London, the doors of Libyan restaurant Acacus open. Chickpea soup with lamb and varieties of tagine are being brought to the tables for those observing Ramadan.

The restaurant's owner Khaled Giami says it is a good time to bring people together for reflection and forgiveness.

"Ramadan is basically you fast from sunrise to set," he says. "You don't eat anything or drink anything within that period of time.

"A Libyan iftar, we break the fast with dates, then the soup comes in, then a small dish then a main dish. It's nice not to eat the whole thing at once, break it down in stages.

"The idea is not to eat too much as well," he adds, chuckling.

A few miles away in south-east London, Christians are also in a season of fasting and prayer for Lent. St Edmund's Church in Beckenham is filled with worshippers coming together.

Fr Stephen Wymer says with fasting in the Christian faith, just giving something up isn't the main point.

"It's really to make us holier, better people, not just among our own Christian circle but with everyone we meet no matter what their religion or culture is," he says.

"It's not about losing weight."

Wymer also feels it's a great time to be fasting with other religions. "There definitely needs to be more prayer and fasting with what's going on in the world right now."

This year, Ramadan and Lent started at more or less at the same time. The last time this happened was in the 1990s.

Fasting is a shared practice across many faiths. Timothy Winter, an associate professor of Islamic studies at the University of Cambridge, says there are more commonalities than differences when it comes to fasting.

"Jewish fasting, Christian fasting, Muslim fasting, Buddhist fasting and others really has the same purpose and the forms are quite similar," says Winter, who's originally from north London.

"One of the forms that Christians used to observe in this country, and universally in early Christianity, was something called the black fast.

"The black fast basically means nothing to eat or drink in the daylight hours, which is more or less something Muslims do and there are still many Christians who observe the black fast.

"On a recent pleasant trip to Malta I discovered the Maltese word for Lent is Ramadan because it used to be a Muslim island and then it became Catholic and they kept the word because I think they felt it's more or less the same thing."

Across the capital, faith leaders have been marking that common ground. Last week, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dame Sarah Mullally attended an interfaith iftar event in London - and at a time of ongoing conflict in the Middle East, many in the city are celebrating their similarities rather than their differences.

Back at Acacus, 19-year-old Abdelgadir, who has come to break his fast with friends, reflects on the moment.

"I love the fact that we are all trying something together. We are all going through a religious phase. We're doing Ramadan, they're doing Lent.

"It's nice to see people around doing something similar, but at the same time it's a completely different religion. It's a nice mix of cultures."

Khaled agrees. "It just shows you how great London is. To give everybody their space and their liberty to practise their religion with respect to others.

"It's a beautiful city for different religions and different societies. That's why London is one of the best cities in the world for this."

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