During a month devoted to reflection and renewal, Dana Hourani and Abdullah AlKaabi explore how scent, memory and collected objects transform home into a living sanctuary, where ritual becomes a quiet return to self.
Rituals of Return: Home and Memory in Ramadan. Ramadan arrives gently. A recalibration of rhythm. A quiet invitation inward.
It is a month that asks us to pause, to consider what anchors us, what restores us, what brings us back to ourselves. In this subtle shift of season, home becomes more than backdrop; it becomes sanctuary. A space of gathering, reflection and renewed connection.
For Dana Hourani, home is a place of stillness within movement. A moment to slow down. To reset. Sometimes it takes only a single scent, warm, grounding, familiar, to soften the present and awaken what was always there. Memory lingers in the air, etched in wood and wick, like ink that never truly fades.
For filmmaker Abdullah AlKaabi, home unfolds as a living archive. Shaped by travel and layered with collected art, it carries fragments of distant places. Yet even among objects, it is fragrance that returns him most vividly. Incense at sunset. A familiar warmth rising through the room. Scent becomes a bridge between past and present, an invisible thread connecting memory to now.
This season also welcomes the release of Aesop’s latest Eau de Parfum, Above Us, Steorra. A glowing amber composition illuminated with cardamom, the fragrance draws inspiration from the sense of awe felt beneath a star-strewn sky. Its warmth settles gently into interiors and onto skin alike, extending the atmosphere of reflection beyond the walls of home.
There is a philosophy that everything in the universe is alive. Perhaps home, too, breathes. It absorbs stories. It holds traces of affection, generosity and devotion. During Ramadan, a month defined by heightened connection and togetherness, homes open for suhoor gatherings where scent becomes a subtle gesture of welcome, a quiet offering shared between host and guest.
The Arabic root of the word “human” is linked to forgetting. And so, this season offers a gentle reminder to remember, to reconnect.
In collaboration with Aesop, scent becomes more than atmosphere. It becomes ritual, a sensory anchor within moments of pause.
To reset is not to escape. It is to return to memory, to stillness, to the sanctuary within.
