Ramadan

Overview

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic Hijri calendar and is widely regarded by Muslims as the holiest month of the year. The name Ramadan derives from the Arabic root for scorching heat, originally referring to the summer heat in the pre-Islamic Arabian Peninsula. As the lunar calendar drifts, however, Ramadan now occurs in every season across the thirty-three-year cycle. The month is defined by the obligation of Sawm — the dawn-to-sunset fast from food, drink, smoking, and marital relations — observed by all adult Muslims who are physically able.

Notable Observances

Ramadan opens with the sighting of the new crescent moon and continues for either twenty-nine or thirty days, depending on the lunar cycle. The month contains the Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr) — described in the Qur'an as better than a thousand months — which falls in the final ten nights and is most widely observed on the twenty-seventh. Mosques host nightly Tarawih prayers in which the entire Qur'an is recited over the course of the month. Ramadan ends with the festival of Eid al-Fitr on the first of Shawwal.