At 3:30 a.m., UF international studies freshman Katarina Negron stuck her fork into a stack of five buttermilk pancakes.
Although this wasn’t the 18-year-old’s first Suhoor, an Islamic meal before a fast, she said she enjoyed eating breakfast with a large group of students.
Early Tuesday morning, about 20 students crammed together at IHOP and savored their pre-fast meals. Later that day, the group would participate in Islam on Campus’s Fast-A-Thon, where attendees forgo food and drinks from sunrise to sunset.
When UF biomedical engineering freshman Ammar Khan saw the Suhoor event page on Facebook, he said he knew he had to go.
Khan sat directly across from Negron, and the two bonded over their love for pancakes.
"Pancakes and I go way back," Negron said. "When I was little, my mom used to make pancakes for me every weekend."
Khan laughed.
"That’s pretty much all you need," he said.
Fast-A-Thon chairman Muhammad Mahgoub said he believes the event was a great way for people to meet.
"They can help motivate each other throughout the day because it’s tough at the first go if you’ve never fasted before," the 24-year-old said.
At about 5 a.m., UF microbiology graduate student Ahmad Ahmad said he wasn’t tired.
"An event like this is a nice start to the day where you can find other people who are all doing the same thing," he said.
At 6:30 p.m. in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center, a couple hundred people broke their fast at Fast-A-Thon just as they started it that morning: together.
After listening to a Quran recitation and prayer, participants were finally able to eat rice and chicken at 8:15 p.m.
Negron ended up breaking her fast early with leftover pancakes.
"Usually, I have no problem fasting," she said. "But when I got up, I was kind of hungry."
Mickey Vellukunnel, a 26-year-old UF computer science graduate student, breaks his fast with pita bread and hummus. He said the space was a good way for people of different religions to come together and “get a taste of the practice,” an Islamic tradition to cleanse one’s body and spirit.
Mohammad Arif, a 21-year-old UF biology senior, calls a crowd of about 500 to pray and break their fast at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center as the sun sets at 7:10 p.m. Oct. 6, 2015. Afir said people’s emotions had been tested during the fast and his call signaled the moment they could “let it all loose.”
