The Story of Our Holidays: Ramadan

The Story of Our Holidays: Ramadan — page 1 — Muslims gather in a stadium in Milan Italy to say the last prayer of Ramadan together

The Story of Our Holidays: Ramadan — page 2 — Ninth Moon 5 Chapter 1 There are nearly two billion Muslims people of the Islamic faith in the world One special night each year Muslim people across the globe scan the sky eagerly At moonrise Ramadan the ninth month of the Islamic year begins During Ramadan Muslims spend the entire month gathering as families and communities They celebrate with prayer fasts and feasts in honor of God Allah in Arabic September is the ninth month out of twelve months in the solar calendar year Even though Ramadan is also the ninth of twelve months it does not fall each year in September In the Arabic language the word Ramadan means the hot month However Ramadan may fall in the summer or winter This is because the Islamic calendar follows the lunar calendar and the Western calendar follows the solar calendar

The Story of Our Holidays: Ramadan — page 3 — A Lunar Calendar The solar calendar is based on the number of days it takes Earth to revolve around the sun That is why there are 365 days in a solar year The Islamic calendar known as the Hijri HIJ-ri calendar depends on the motion of the moon This makes it a lunar calendar The sun always lights half of the moon It lights the half facing the sun As the moon moves around Earth we see different parts of it lit up These are the moon’s phases Muslims in olden days were great sky watchers and scientists They noticed that a complete cycle of the moon lasts twenty-nine and a half days Each set of phases equals one month There are twelve cycles of twenty-nine and a half days which makes a lunar year 354 days long This matches what is written in the Quran the Islamic holy book The lunar year is eleven days shorter than the solar calendar year This is why lunar calendar months begin and end at different times The moon’s first phase is the new moon No moon can be seen The moon first becomes visible as a crescent Islamic months begin the day after the sighting of the first crescent moon 6

The Story of Our Holidays: Ramadan — page 4 — The twelve months of the Islamic calendar are Muharram moo HUR-rum Safar SUF-er Rabi rub-EEY the First Rabi the Second Jumada joo-MAH-da the First Jumada the Second Rajab ra-JUB Sha’ban SHAA-bon Ramadan rah-ma-DAAN Shawwaal SHAW-waal Zul Qi’dah zool-KI-dah and Zul Hijja zool-HEEJ-jah 7 As the moon moves around Earth we see different parts of it lit up Sometimes we see no moon Other times we may see a crescent moon a half moon or a full moon

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