Managed to eat crackers before a period of fasting (7)
I believe the answer is:
ramadan
'period of fasting' is the definition.
(month of fasting in Islam)
'managed to eat crackers before a' is the wordplay.
'managed' becomes 'ran' (both can mean organised or was in charge of).
'to eat' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'crackers before' becomes 'mad' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'mad'+'a'='mada'
'ran' enclosing 'mada' is 'RAMADAN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ramadan that I've seen before include "The fasting month for Muslims, ninth of year" , "Islam holy month" , "Muslim holy month" , "Religious festival" , "Islamic fast" .)