CHICAGO — In many Catholic parishes, people are gathering for Friday night fish fries because they abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent. In Muslim homes, people are gathering every evening for iftar dinners to break their sunrise-to-sunset fast from all food and drink, including water, during the holy month of Ramadan.

Lent, the 40-day period before Easter on the Christian calendar, always occurs at this time of year. Ramadan rotates around the calendar, taking place in various seasons because the Islamic calendar is calculated based on the lunar calendar. This year, though, they coincide, with Christian fasting taking place at the same time as Muslim fasting.

Sabeel Ahmed, director of the GainPeace project, an Islamic outreach organization that educates Americans about Muslims, drew comparisons between Lent and Ramadan.

Both religions’ traditions focus on fasting as a means for spiritual growth, which Muslims might call spiritual purification, said Ahmed, of Morton Grove, who has ties to the Masjid-e-Suffah mosque in Skokie and holds a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies with a specialty in comparative religions. Both encourage giving up physical things, such as food, drink, pleasures or indulgences, in order to focus followers’ minds on the spiritual.

Both also emphasize increased prayer and charity, he said.

“It gives us discipline,” said Ahmed. “When we are fasting for 30 days, it is like a boot camp for us. It is going to transform us into a better Muslim, a better family member, a better neighbor, a better human and a better worshiper of God.”

Bishop Timothy O’Malley of the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago offered his thoughts on fasting, saying, “It’s a form of prayer, and the self-denial helps people realize, ‘Wow, I’m missing this stuff, but it’s not God. It’s not the most important thing in the world.’

“Our relationship with God is much more important than our relationship with food.”

O’Malley also talked about self-discipline as a way to focus on the spiritual.

“It’s a discipline, so okay, I’m not gonna eat that candy (or meat). It’s a good day to be focused on God,” he said.

Both traditions have roots in the holy writings of Christianity and Islam, said Imam Hafiz Ikhlas Ansari of the Muslim Education Center Masjid in Morton Grove. He quoted a verse from the Quran that prescribed fasting for Islamic believers “the way it was prescribed for the people before you,” meaning the Judeo-Christian prophets and key figures Moses and Abraham, as well as Jesus, whom Catholics regard as God, the son of God, and one of the three who make up the holy trinity. Muslims regard Jesus as a prophet, Ansari said.

The Christian Bible also mentions numerous instances of central figures in Christianity fasting. For example, the New Testament’s Gospel of Matthew describes Jesus fasting in the desert for 40 days.

Ansari said Islamic believers fast to attain God consciousness and righteousness, and strengthen their relationship with God. Also important during Ramadan, he said, is to do God’s work in the world.

“We do it (strengthen our faith during Ramadan) through service to humanity and all creation,” he said. “We want to serve people and take care of everything God has created.”

He said that could include helping those in need, facilitating peace through justice, giving to charity, and on and on.

Rev. Louis J. Cameli, a priest in the Chicago Archdiocese, wrote, in an essay on Catholic Lent, “Whatever we do during Lent—for example, prayer, fasting, and works of charity—certainly isn’t meant to prove something to God or to ourselves…They serve…to hollow out a space for God’s spirit to move in us.”

Ramadan and Lent fasting do differ in some important respects, though.

During the approximately 30 days of Ramadan, Muslims rise before dawn to eat breakfast and then eat and drink nothing until sunset, said Mohammed Talha, the resident scholar for Suffah Educational Guidance at the Masjid-E-Suffah mosque in Skokie.

Muslims typically break the fast with an evening meal at sunset called iftar, either at home or sometimes at a mosque or gathering. Ramadan ends with an Islamic holiday called Eid, which is expected to fall March 30 or 31 this year.

O’Malley said Catholics fast for Lent by abstaining from eating meat on Ash Wednesday, which falls 40 days before Easter, and Fridays that fall between Ash Wednesday and Easter.

Every year, Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox, according to the Astronomical Applications Department of the U.S. Naval Observatory. It always falls between March 22 and April 25; this year it falls on April 20.

O’Malley said some Catholics also take fasting a step further and eat less during fasting days, sticking to simple meals of bread and water. Some groups within the church have also increased their dedication to God by keeping the diet of the prophet Daniel, going for 40 days without meat and only eating fruits and vegetables.

Last year, O’Malley said he asked a group of children whether any had given up Takis (spicy snack chips) for Lent, and no one raised their hand.

This year, “more than 10 kids raised their hands… so I was pretty impressed,” he said.

“So to say you can give up Takis, you won’t die. It won’t be the end of your life, and maybe you learn Takis aren’t the most important thing.”

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