Well, it is a frequent complaint that we hear a lot and in more than one Arabic dialect, and we even launch it ourselves sometimes, about the old Ramadan, where goodness and warmth prevailed in homes and television shows, what is delicious from the signs of fine art, in Egypt, for example, people lose the riddles, the episodes of One Thousand and One Nights and the program "Without words", people in Sudan will tell you that they went through Ramadan better two decades ago, you will find the same talk in Morocco, Jordan and the Arab Gulf countries about the Ramadan that we lived or lived Our parents are children, which is undoubtedly better than the current Ramadan.

Some express their feeling of the advent of the holy month with the expression "smells of Ramadan", some feel that Ramadan has a smell that spreads it in the air days before its arrival, and some who are nostalgic for Ramadan in the past express that they do not find this "smell" that they are used to. Of course, we are currently going through harsh social, political and economic conditions in some areas of our Arab world, and consequently, the talk of some about the old Ramadan may be burdened with these problems, but in essence it is deeper than that, because almost all human beings see their past as better than their present.

When people and events stay with you

Researchers believe that emotionally charged situations can lead us to create longer-lasting memories of the event. (Shutterstock)

The American Psychological Association defines "emotional memory" as the repeated recall of events that elicit an emotional response, which causes us to remember them over and over again. Emotional memory allows individuals to experience the original emotions resulting from an event, whether positive or negative, such as feelings of horror when describing an incident, or joy when describing the wedding of a close family member, once the event is remembered, that is, the person feels here the same feelings that he experienced when the event happened realistically once he recalls this event from his memory. (1)

The same seems to apply to the Ramadan feelings stored in our memories, those feelings that include the warmth of the mother, the tenderness of her voice and the good smell of her food, the safety and tranquility of the father's presence, the most forgotten brothers in both play and quarrel, with the passage of years the images, houses and situations change, so a new Ramadan passes on the same person, without his parents being next to him, or after the circumstances and responsibilities of life have separated him from his brothers and occupied each of them with his own life. When this person recalls a memory of Ramadan in the past from his memory, he finds it loaded with a lot of warm good feelings, which he does not find now, and he does not feel that the smells of Ramadan and happiness today resemble or are close to what he experienced before.

This leads us to talk about the concept of emotion and how it affects our perception of events. Although there is no universally accepted definition of the term "emotion," everyone has a personal understanding of what it means to have an emotional response to something. Memory researchers have considered an event to be described as "emotional" if the person or values the event feels inherently pleasant or unpleasant, or if the event causes a change in the person's level of arousal, and changes their calmness or enthusiasm. (2)

It has been scientifically observed a strange effect of emotion on the formation of memory, which is that our emotional state at the time of the event can affect our ability to memorize the details of that event, because of what I previously felt of feeling safe, reassured, warmth, humane and the presence of loved ones nearby, all the details of what you experienced previously from the Ramadan seasons remain engraved in your memory, the smell of food before Iftar, the sound of the Qur'an, the series you watched with your family members, the touch of moist air on your face while you were playing with Your brothers after Iftar while you receive the sound of Taraweeh prayers and supplications from the nearest mosques to your home.

In fact, researchers believe that these emotionally charged situations can lead us to create longer-lasting memories of the event. When we experience feelings of joy, anger, or other states of mind, the formation of vivid memories is often possible with greater probability than everyday situations to which we feel little or no emotional attachment. (3)

This fact is illustrated by an experiment conducted by cognitive psychologist Donald Mackay and a team of researchers, in which participants were asked to engage in an emotional test, during which a set of different words were presented to the respondents in quick succession. Each word was printed in a different color, and the respondents were asked to remember the color in which the word was printed. They were later asked to remember the words after the initial test. Mackay found that words that were intended to elicit an emotional response were remembered more frequently than words with fewer emotional connotations. (4)

A report published on Psychology Today explains how remembering the past can awaken an emotional response, such as a shiver of excitement, the heat of anger, the pain of sadness, or even the nostalgia for the feeling of happiness and joy we once tasted. (5) The author of the report, Marie Lamia, a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, points out that a good emotional memory, as much as it brings us happiness and warmth, also brings us pain because it no longer exists, and we feel that nothing can replace it or replace its role. She expresses this by recounting her own personal experience: "I opened a box that had been stored away for many years and found something that belonged to my mother. Besides the jubilation, a temporary sadness arose inside me, as if I had somehow communicated with her again." (5)

Nostalgia has a major role

Research shows that people engage in nostalgic fantasies when they feel vulnerable in an effort to boost their mood and self-confidence during the present. (Shutterstock)

Other than that the Ramadan seasons that some experienced during childhood and boyhood are charged with feelings and emotions that enable them to encode them as an emotional memory, there is another reason why the Ramadan in the past may be better, this reason is nostalgia or nostalgia, which is an emotion that arises towards the past, this emotion is usually directed to a period of time or a place with happy personal relationships.

Nostalgia occurs through the occurrence of something that reminds the individual of a past experience. This feeling is often described as longing or a desire to return to a previous time or place. Nostalgia may not only be about happy memories, it can also be about longing for a time when things were simpler, or a time when we felt more connected to others. (6)

For many years she has developed many books on the psychology of nostalgia, many of which have highlighted the positive effects of nostalgia, which has led this feeling to be referred to as a mostly positive emotion. (7) On the other hand, research shows that people engage in nostalgic fantasies when they feel vulnerable in an attempt to boost their mood and self-confidence in the present. Therefore, David Newman, a psychologist at the University of Southern California, and his colleagues argue that feelings of nostalgia may also be associated with sadness.

In a lab study, the researchers used a technique known as a "sampling experiment." This method allows psychologists to get snapshots of participants' lives in real time by downloading an app on their smartphones that sends them some messages at random intervals for the duration of the study, which is usually a week or more.

Each time participants receive a text message, they are asked to complete a brief questionnaire in which they state what they are doing, thinking and feeling at that particular moment. Participants were sent eight random messages during the day, and the researchers found that people were more likely to experience nostalgia when they felt sad or depressed than they were in a happy mood. (8)

A month of Ramadan for adults responsible for families and children may mean more financial stress. It may be natural to have a child's joy with lanterns, nuts, yamish, a table full of delicious hot food for breakfast, and how you feel about the same things when you are the one entrusted with providing them. Perhaps it makes sense here for those who feel pressured with no possible coping mechanisms to escape from the present moment, recording with their feelings a state of nostalgia for the past days, which they see as incomparably more beautiful than the present days.

What you might say to yourself in this context: "I would have been happier if life had continued so simple, school and homework were much easier than work and everything else I had to do now." But your memory here is usually selective, you tend to support your idea, so you overlook many negative shots, which you drop in order not to lose your memory of its beauty, for example, you forget the sound of regular fights between your parents, which increase especially in the seasons with the increase in financial pressures. (9) In fact, the current Ramadan may be warmer and more beautiful than what you have experienced before, but you do not feel it, because you only long for memories that your mind deludes you that they were much prettier.

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Sources:

1- emotional memory

2- Emotional Memory

3- Emotions and Memory

4- Relations between emotion, memory, and attention: Evidence from taboo Stroop, lexical decision, and immediate memory tasks.

5- Emotional Memories: When People and Events Remain With You

6- What Is Nostalgia?

7- Nostalgia and Well-Being in Daily Life: An Ecological Validity Perspective

8- The Psychology of Nostalgia

9- Those Happy Golden Years: Coping with Memories That Bring More Pain Than Peace