Eva wrote:

>My family lived for a short while, two summers in a town called Kiruna,
far
>above the polar circle. There was a rather large colony of Iranians who
were
>muslims. I believe they made a compromise and decided that sunrise/sunset
>occured at the same time as i Mecca.

I can't wait to tell my Islamic friends about that one. They live in the
US now, and will find the idea of observing Ramadan above the Arctic
circle as bizarre as I did <g> I'm trying to figure out what drew the
Iranians to such high latitudes. My Pakistani friend used to find it
really cold when she worked in London, and now enjoys the heat of SC.

IF on an every-other-day basis would also present a problem during polar
winters ;-)

>I would also think that the three meals a day  tradition comes from when
>people were forced out into the fields to work all day. It was convinient
>for the landowner and the persons who were assigned to do the cooking that
>people came and ate at set hours. Probably people were able to work hard
for
>many more hours when this was the routine. Modern hunter/gatherers only
>worked an average of about 20 hours a week - the rest was playtime. What
>farm hand is allowed that?

And the tradition is continued in the West because of the clock-slavery of
the 9 - 5 and school regimentation.

Thanks Eva,

Persephone