Islamic Holidays

Holidays in Islam generally center around the life of the prophet Muhammad (the founder of Islam) or observances he began. To Muslims, Muhammad is viewed as the last and greatest prophet of God. It is the revelations sent by God to Muhammad which make up the Quran, the book on which the religion of Islam is based. What year it is in Islam is determined by counting the years from the time in which Muhammad fled from Mecca to Medina (referred to as Hegira, A.D. July 16, 622). For example, the year 2008 for those outside the Islamic world is A.H. 1429 for Muslims. If you are following a Gregorian calendar (solar calendar), the dates of Islamic holidays move each year because Muslims follow a lunar calendar. The Islamic year still has 12 months, but only 354-355 days.  Each cycle, holidays shift by about 11 days on the Gregorian calendar.

There are two main sects of Islam - Sunni and Shia. The Sunnis represent the majority of Muslims, with the next largest group being the Shiites. In the Islamic world, what observances are recognized and how holidays are celebrated can vary slightly across Muslim cultures and between sects. For example, the lunar calendars used by Sunnis and Shiites are not always in total agreement.  This could lead to the same holiday being celebrated on different days by the two sects.

In comparison to other religions, Islam has relatively few holidays. There are two key religious observances each year, the month of Ramadan and the annual pilgrimage to Mecca (referred to as Hajj). Several holidays occur in conjunction with, or around, these observances while a few others occur at different times throughout the year. Two such observances that occur around Ramadan and Hajj are considered major holidays. They are the three day long Eid al-Fitr (end of Ramadan) and the four day long Eid al-Adha (end of Hajj). Ramadan, Hajj, Eid al-Fitr, and Eid al-Adha are the most universally celebrated Islamic events in the Muslim world. Other important observances include Laylat al-Qadr (in remembrance of the night the Quran was first revealed) and Ashura (originally to commemorate the day Noah left the ark and the day Moses was saved from the Egyptians, but is also now a major festival for Shiites commemorating the death of Martyr Husayn).