Ramadan Word #3 Milk and Dates

After fasting a whole day, the stomach feels strange, and often you don't feel hungry. It not easy to just start eating after not having had food and drink for such a long time, because the stomach is barely working, so it would make it hurt.

Therefore, at 6 pm, when the call for prayer is heard, you break your fast with milk and dates. After that you rest, so that your stomach can start working and you feel hungry. Then, you start the meal.

Traditionally, you would first have milk and dates, then go pray, and then have Iftar. I never experienced it that way so far. The people I had Iftar with until now, always had the milk and dates, (then usually a cigarette) and then food straight away.

Unfortunately for me. I would like to experience the things in the very traditional way somehow. It feels, if I already go through this, I would like to do it right. And second, I personally find it extremely difficult to just start eating out of the blue and with no time to rest after the first bite (milk and dates) because my stomach doesn't have time to activate itself and I get a terrible stomach ache each time after food.
So I'm still looking for the traditional way of having Iftar...