2023-04-21 14:26:46
Ramadan is over, and you can feel the holiday spirit on Sonnenallee in Berlin-Neukölln. Shops are decked out and City Chicken is back in business.
Sweet pastries in the Munem pastry shop on Sonnenallee in Neukölln.Hans Scherhaufer/imago
The mood on Friday on Sonnenallee is different than on normal days. At the Azzam supermarket on the corner of Jansastraße, a red boom box stands above the strawberries from Spain and sonicates the street with endless loops of “Allahu Akbar”. “God is greater” or “God is greatest” means the call to prayer. In the western world one hardly hears it without thinking of the terrorists who used it in attacks. The shop worker out on the street doesn’t feel that way, “Allahu Akbar” is part of every Muslim’s life, it’s everyday life. “Nice, isn’t it,” he says, when asked about what comes out of the box. Then he points his customers to the sweets that are on two silver trays on a vegetable box. “Take it, take it,” he urges the bystanders.
It is the Sugar Festival or Eid-Al-Fitr that makes its mark here, it marks the end of Ramadan, the last breaking of the fast was celebrated on Thursday evening. It has the nickname Sugar Festival because so many sweets are eaten on this day. Neukölln’s Sonnenallee lives up to its nickname Sharia al Arab, Arabic street, for this occasion. In recent years, Syrians in particular have opened new shops here, supermarkets, pastry shops, restaurants, but also a striking number of men’s hairdressers.
At City Chicken, where there was nothing at all for a whole month until the evening iftar, the break of the fast, all the tables are now occupied again. Also outside. The weather is spring-like. Children wear festive clothes, a little boy with a tie and a suit is sitting at a table. Muslim children have no school on this day in Berlin. People are in a good mood. A motorist blocking the sidewalk apologizes to the pedestrian trying to get past it. “I’ll be right away.” On other days, something like this often takes place in an irritated tone. Some stores have decorated their facades with balloon garlands, for example the El Pascha Grill, the City House, the Al Faisal Restaurant. “You can come tomorrow and I’ll give you one,” says the clerk at the palace bakery. From here it is only a few steps to Hermannplatz.
Boxes of sweets for the Sugar Festival
“Allahu Akbar” also comes from the supermarket at the corner of Hobrichtstraße. At the fruit and vegetable shop a few steps away there are boxes of sweets on the street display. Where else cucumbers and peppers can be found.
The flower arrangements in front of the Schawarma Al Zaeem shop, which bear the names of the surrounding shops, have nothing to do with the Sugar Festival. They are greetings for the opening of the snack bar. The shawarma spear spinning in the window here is human-sized and incredibly thick. In the evening there will probably be nothing left of it.
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