Ramadan begins

When it falls

The first day of Ramaḍān, the ninth month of the Islamic year, from the sighting of the crescent. The fast runs every day from dawn to sunset for twenty-nine or thirty days, ending at Eid al-Fitr.

The Phala almanac gives the exact day for your own city; the lunar and solar rules above are what it computes from.

The story

The Qurʾān was first revealed to the Prophet Muḥammad in this month, on the Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr), held to be one of the odd nights of the last ten. Fasting in it is the fourth of the five pillars of Islam: from the first light until sunset nothing is eaten or drunk, and the month is for prayer, the Qurʾān read through, charity and the mastering of the self.

The fast is ended each evening at the call to the sunset prayer with dates and water, as the Prophet broke his; the meal is ifṭār, and the meal before dawn is suḥūr (sehrī in India). Because the month moves through the seasons, a Ramaḍān in June in the far north can mean a fast of nineteen hours.

Old Delhi around the Jāmaʿ Masjid, Hyderabad's streets of haleem, Lucknow's Aminabad and Mumbai's Mohammed Ali Road become food markets from sunset to sehrī every night of the month.

How the day is kept

• Suḥūr before the dawn prayer and ifṭār at sunset, with dates first; the fast holds through every hour between.
• Tarāwīḥ, the extra night prayers after the last daily prayer, in which the whole Qurʾān is recited across the month.
• Zakāt (the yearly charity) is commonly given in this month, and ifṭār is offered to the poor and to strangers in every mosque.
• The last ten nights are spent in retreat (iʿtikāf) in the mosque by those who can, waiting for the Night of Power.

At the table

Dates, fruit and fried snacks at ifṭār, pakoṛā and samosā in India, rūḥ afzā in milk, haleem in Hyderabad, and the nihārī and kebabs of the night markets; paratha and yoghurt at sehrī.

More fasts and vigils