What Is Ramadan? The Holy Month of Fasting in 2026

What Is Ramadan?

Ramadan (رمضان) is the 9th month of the Islamic Hijri calendar and the holiest month of the year for the world's 1.9 billion Muslims. It is the month of sawm—ritual fasting from dawn to sunset—which is one of the Five Pillars of Islam and a religious obligation for adult Muslims.

The month commemorates the first revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad in 610 CE, an event traditionally placed on Lailat al-Qadr (the Night of Power) in the final ten days of the month. Beyond fasting, Ramadan is a period of intensified prayer, charity, Quran recitation, and self-discipline. It ends with the festival of Eid Al-Fitr, the "festival of breaking the fast."

When Is Ramadan 2026?

Ramadan 2026 is expected to begin around Tuesday, 17 February 2026 and end around Wednesday, 18 March 2026, subject to the official sighting of the crescent moon. Eid Al-Fitr 2026 is then expected on or around Friday, 20 March 2026.

The exact start and end dates are not fixed in advance because most Muslim authorities require the new crescent moon (hilal) to be physically sighted. As a result, neighbouring countries can declare the start of Ramadan one day apart.

Why the Date Moves Each Year

The Islamic calendar is a purely lunar calendar of twelve months totalling 354 or 355 days—approximately eleven days shorter than the 365-day Gregorian solar year. Because it is not adjusted with leap months to keep pace with the seasons, Ramadan drifts backwards through the Gregorian year by about eleven days annually. Over a 33-year cycle, Ramadan therefore passes through every season.

There are two main approaches to fixing the date:

• Moon sighting (ru'yah): Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and most Arab states rely on the physical sighting of the crescent moon by appointed witnesses. The Saudi Majlis al-Qada al-A'la (Supreme Court) typically issues the announcement on the evening of the 29th of Sha'ban.
• Astronomical calculation (hisab): Turkey, Indonesia, and Malaysia often use precomputed astronomical data to fix the date in advance, sometimes producing a one-day difference from sighting-based countries.

The Five Pillars of Islam

Ramadan sits inside a wider framework of Islamic practice known as the Five Pillars (arkan al-Islam), the foundational obligations of every adult Muslim:

1. Shahada — the declaration of faith: "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is His messenger."
2. Salah — the five daily prayers performed at fixed times.
3. Zakat — the annual obligatory charity, typically 2.5% of qualifying wealth.
4. Sawm — fasting during the month of Ramadan.
5. Hajj — the pilgrimage to Mecca, performed at least once in a lifetime by those who are able.

Sawm is the only pillar tied to a specific month, which gives Ramadan its unique place in the religious calendar.

How Ramadan Fasting Works

The Ramadan fast is observed each day from Fajr (the first light of dawn, also called imsak) to Maghrib (sunset). During those hours, observant Muslims abstain from:

• All food and drink, including water
• Smoking and the use of tobacco
• Marital relations
• Anger, gossip, and dishonest speech, which break the spirit of the fast even if not its legal validity

The day is bracketed by two meals:

• Suhoor (also sehri in South Asia) — a pre-dawn meal taken before the Fajr prayer to sustain the faster through the day.
• Iftar — the meal that breaks the fast at sunset. It is traditional to begin with dates and water, following the practice of the Prophet Muhammad, before the main meal.

Who Must Fast

The fast is obligatory for every Muslim who is adult, sane, and physically able. Islamic law recognises a number of exemptions:

• Pre-pubescent children — encouraged to practise short fasts but not obliged
• The sick — including those with chronic conditions where fasting would cause harm
• Travellers on long journeys
• Menstruating women and women in post-natal bleeding
• Pregnant or nursing women if fasting would harm them or their child
• The elderly for whom fasting is no longer feasible

Missed fasts are made up later in the year (qada) once the impediment has passed. Where making up the fast is not possible—for example, due to permanent illness or old age—a compensatory payment (fidya) feeds a person in need for each missed day.

A Day in Ramadan

A typical day in a Muslim-majority country reshapes itself around the fast:

• Pre-dawn: The household wakes for suhoor, often a substantial meal of bread, eggs, dairy, dates, and water. The Fajr prayer is performed before the sky lightens, and the fast formally begins.
• Morning to afternoon: Work and school continue, though hours are typically reduced. In Saudi Arabia and the UAE, public-sector working hours are commonly cut to roughly 8 am – 2 pm, and the private sector often follows suit.
• Late afternoon: Markets and supermarkets fill as families shop for iftar. Mosques and homes prepare large communal meals.
• Sunset (Maghrib): The fast is broken with dates and water, followed by the Maghrib prayer and then the iftar meal.
• Evening: Many Muslims attend Taraweeh prayers at the mosque after the night-time Isha prayer. Taraweeh are long voluntary congregational prayers (typically 1 to 1.5 hours) during which a portion of the Quran is recited each night, completing the entire Quran across the month.

Lailat al-Qadr — The Night of Power

Lailat al-Qadr, the Night of Power or Night of Decree, is described in the Quran (Surah Al-Qadr, 97) as the night on which the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. It is regarded as the holiest night of the year.

Its exact date is not fixed in scripture. Tradition places it on one of the odd-numbered nights in the last ten days of Ramadan—the 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th, or 29th—with the 27th night widely considered the most likely. In 2026 this falls on or around the night of 14 March 2026.

The Quran states that worship performed on this night is "better than a thousand months" of devotion. Many Muslims spend Lailat al-Qadr in I'tikaf—a spiritual retreat in the mosque devoted to prayer, Quran recitation, and supplication.

Iftar Foods Around the World

The iftar table reflects centuries of regional culinary tradition. While dates and water always come first, the meal that follows varies enormously:

• Saudi Arabia: Dates, jallab (a date and rose-water drink), sambousek pastries, and harees (slow-cooked wheat and meat porridge).
• United Arab Emirates: Luqaimat (sweet fried dumplings in date syrup), harees, fattoush salad, and ouzi (spiced lamb and rice).
• Egypt: Foul medames (stewed fava beans), koshari, and the iconic Ramadan sweets qatayef (stuffed pancakes) and kunafa.
• Turkey: Flat Ramazan pidesi bread baked fresh each afternoon, lentil soup, dolma, and baklava.
• Pakistan and India: Samosas, pakoras, fruit chaat, sheer khurma (vermicelli and milk pudding), and jalebi.
• Indonesia: Kolak (palm-sugar fruit compote), es buah (mixed fruit ice), and kue pukis cakes.
• Morocco: Harira soup, briouats (fried filled pastries), and the sesame-and-honey chebakia.

Ramadan Around the World

Saudi Arabia

As the custodian of Islam's two holiest mosques, Saudi Arabia observes Ramadan with particular intensity. Public-sector working hours are reduced for the month, and the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina host millions of pilgrims for the Taraweeh and Qiyam prayers. The final ten nights, in particular, see worshippers flood the precinct of the Kaaba.

United Arab Emirates

Across the UAE, government and many private offices reduce hours to roughly 9 am – 2 pm. Free public iftar tents are set up in every city, often funded by mosques, businesses, and royal initiatives, serving meals to labourers and the public.

Egypt

Egyptian streets are decorated with the colourful fanous (Ramadan lantern), a tradition dating back to the Fatimid era. In older neighbourhoods, the mosaharati still walks the streets before dawn, banging a drum and calling residents by name to wake them for suhoor.

Turkey

Turkey is famous for its Ramadan drummers (davulcu), who walk through neighbourhoods before dawn beating a large drum to wake households for sehri. Mosques are illuminated with mahya—messages of greeting strung in lights between minarets.

Indonesia

As the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, Indonesia approaches Ramadan as a national event. Families gather for buka puasa (iftar) and prepare for mudik—the mass return to home villages around Eid Al-Fitr that becomes the largest annual human migration in Southeast Asia.

Western Countries

Significant Muslim communities in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the United States observe Ramadan within secular societies. Mosques host nightly iftar gatherings open to neighbours of all faiths, universities and large employers offer prayer space and adjusted schedules, and the open-iftar movement has become a fixture in cities such as London and New York.

Public Holidays During Ramadan

Ramadan itself is not a public holiday. Schools, offices, and government services remain open throughout the month, although working hours are typically reduced in Muslim-majority countries.

The festival that ends Ramadan—Eid Al-Fitr—is, however, one of the two largest public holidays in the Islamic world, observed for three to four days in most Muslim-majority countries:

Some countries—including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar—legally shorten the working day for the entire month of Ramadan, with statutory limits on private-sector hours.

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