After the sun set on Thursday and the prayers had been said, the ACT's Muslim community sat down with their chief minister to break the fast on the fifth day of Ramadan.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The third annual ACT Ramadan dinner, hosted by Chief Minister Katy Gallagher, was held at the Theo Notaras Multicultural Centre in Civic.
More than 100 people attended the event, which Ms Gallagher said was an important occasion to show respect to the Muslim community and promote tolerance and understanding.
"We all understand about Easter and Christmas and we have no problem with everyone celebrating those, but Ramadan is less well understood," she said.
"Although that's changing. You just walk into the shops today and you'll see dates at the counter. So that is starting to change, but these [dinners] facilitate understanding and through that tolerance and, hopefully, harmony across the community."
Canberra Islamic Centre president Azra Khan said Ramadan was the most significant month on the Islamic calender, when Muslims get a chance to stop and think about their relationship with God.
In 2014 it falls between June 29 and July 28.
"It is a very holy month where people try to take stock of their lives and focus on being more religious in their behaviours and try and observe all the rituals that Muslims are meant to, but in a more sincere way," she said.
Throughout the month of Ramadan, Ms Khan said Muslims don't eat between sunrise and sunset, breaking their fast in the evening with a large dinner.
"Food is such a distraction, food and drink, your whole world revolves around food and drink and during Ramadan, when you don't have that during the course of the day, you actually can focus on what it is to be a Muslim," she said.
Ms Khan said Canberra had a close and diverse Islamic community, with members from across a range of ethnic groups and countries.
"We've got Indian, Pakistanis, Sudanese, Malaysians, Indonesians and Turkish people - there's a vast mix of different people from different countries who live in Canberra," she said.
