DAMASCUS, Syria -- In a story July 10 about Ramadan, The Associated Press, relying on a press release issued by the U.N.'s Department of Public Information, News and Media Division, reported erroneously that the World Food Program said it needed $27 million every month to deal with the growing ranks of Syrians made hungry because of the war and refugees crisis abroad. The World Food Program needed $27 million every week. The U.N. has corrected the error.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Syrians struggle to find festive mood this Ramadan

Syrians struggle to find festive mood this Ramadan as prices soar and war drags on

By ALBERT AJI and DIAA HADID

Associated Press

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began Wednesday, many Syrians who observe the daily dawn-to-dusk fast that is broken with lavish family meals are struggling to find the usually festive mood and holiday warmth as the country's bloody conflict rages for a third year.

In one rebel-held city, residents have resorted to begging for crumbs at a local soup kitchen, while in a refugee camp on the Jordanian border, Syrians hounded by the desert heat and dust break their fast separated from relatives back home.

Reflecting the deprivation brought on by the war, the U.N food agency said that 7 million people were now reliant on food aid simply to eat. The fighting that has destroyed much of the country, combined with prices that have soared in recent months, have left many Syrians struggling to get by.

"People come by the kitchen just begging for scraps, it tears the heart," said an activist in the rebel-held northern Syrian city of Maarat al-Numan.

He said activists were using a communal kitchen to distribute a simple Ramadan evening meal of rice, vegetable stew and soup to some 400 of the city's neediest families. He identified himself only by his nickname, Abu Anas, fearing for his safety.

In the Zaatari refugee camp in the Jordanian desert, many of the 120,000 Syrians that live in the sprawling tent city home were homesick and miserable.

"Carrying out the Ramadan fast in this refugee camp is extremely difficult in every way imaginable," said Abu Qusai, a 32-year-old construction worker from the restive southern province of Daraa, where the Syrian uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011. "It is as dry as a bone and the dust is kicking up ... we're thirsty, dirty and very uncomfortable. We're fed up."

Ramadan is traditionally a time of reflection and prayer, and Muslims are expected to abstain during daylight hours from food, drink, smoking and sex to focus on spirituality, good deeds and charity. The fast presents a physical and spiritual challenge every year, but particularly when the holiday falls during harsh Mideast summer when the days are longest and temperatures soar in some places to 50 degrees Celsius (120 Fahrenheit).

The Muslim lunar calendar moves back through the seasons, so Ramadan starts 11 days earlier each year under the Western calendar.

For most Sunnis and Shiites, Ramadan started on Wednesday while others are expected to begin observing the holy month on Thursday - differences based on various interpretations of sightings of the new moon.

Despite its apparent harshness, many Muslims eagerly anticipate Ramadan, the month when they believe God revealed the first verses of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, to the Prophet Muhammad. Streets are decorated with colorful lanterns, families gather at dusk to break their fasts with sumptuous feasts of meat and rice and sweets, the devout pray even more and regional cooking shows obsess over new takes on classic dishes for the Ramadan evening meal.