Compared with last year, when mosques around the world were closed because of the coronavirus, this Holy Month has limits, but friends and family, too.

By Vivian Yee and Adam Rasgon

CAIRO — Compared with Ramadan 2020, when mosques around the world were closed for prayer during the holiest month of the year for Muslims, and curfews prevented friends and family from gathering to break the fast, the religious holiday this year offered the promise of something much closer to normal.

“Last year, I felt depressed and I didn’t know how long the pandemic would last,” said Riyad Deis, a co-owner of a spice and dried-fruit shop in Jerusalem’s Old City. On Tuesday, the first day of the Muslim fasting month, its narrow alleys were alive with shoppers browsing Ramadan sweets and worshipers heading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Mr. Deis, 51, who was selling whole pieces of turmeric and Medjool dates to a customer, recalled how empty and subdued the Old City had felt last year as virus cases surged and the authorities closed Al-Aqsa. “Now, I’m relaxed, I have enough money to provide for my family and people are purchasing goods from my shop,” he said. “It’s a totally different reality.”

Across the Muslim world, the authorities have imposed limits on Ramadan customs and festivities at mosques this year: telling worshipers to bring their own prayer rugs and wear face masks, putting time limits on taraweeh, the special extra prayers that some worshipers observe every evening of the month, and imposing other rules.

And yet. In the days before Ramadan, many in the region embraced the festive traditions that create crowds — a potential surge in cases notwithstanding. Worshipers surged into mosques. Shopping districts in Cairo were thronged.

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