Islamic Holidays, Events and Traditions to Know
Each religion has its most influential days throughout the year. The Islamic world, as for Catholics, has dates that remember and determine particular days in which celebrating one’s God is the only thing that matters. Certainly not everyone strictly follows the traditions, but it can happen that during training courses, during working hours or inside the reception centers, we find ourselves involved in attending moments of prayer in which any activity is momentarily suspended to leave. space for prayer. What can we do then? Knowing the most important days is certainly the way not to be unprepared and to understand, where possible, the meaning of their behavior.
The Islamic calendar is based on a scan of the lunar time, in which the months alternate in days of 29 and 30 days. For the current year, 9 important dates are planned.
The first is the Lailat al Miraj, scheduled for April 13, where miʿrāj means the ascent of Mohammed to Heaven. The Islamic tradition tells that Mohammed was accompanied by the Archangel Gabriel in his ascension to Heaven, where he met the great characters of the Jewish and Christian tradition such as Abraham, Moses and Jesus.
On May 1, Lailat al Bara’a is celebrated – the night of forgiveness – the date according to which a period of religious reflection is marked, before entering the month of fasting dedicated to Ramadan. Tradition has it that Prophet Muhammad drew attention to this special night and Allah’s goodness by motivating people to wake up during the night and fast during the day. Given the fact that the Islamic lunar calendar differs from the Gregorian solar calendar, the date of celebration of this holiday varies from year to year.
Ramadan
The beginning of Ramadan is celebrated on May 15th, the month in which fasting is practiced (Sawm in Arabic), to celebrate the first revelation of the Koran to Mohammed. This annual holiday is considered one of the Five Pillars of Islam and fasting is a religious precept (Farḍ) for adult Muslims, those who are elderly, pregnant, breastfeeding, diabetic or terminally ill are excluded from this practice. or other special conditions. Fasting was made compulsory (wājib) during the month of Sha’ban, in the second year after the migration of Muslims from Mecca to Medina. It is in this month that the divine presence among men is felt most perceptible. Hence the custom of intensifying the reading of the Koran in and devotional practices. The obligatory prayers that every Muslim must perform daily are five: at dawn, at noon, in the afternoon, at sunset, during the night. The beginning of each prayer is marked by the appeal (adhan) launched from a high position by the “Muezzin”, the one who calls the faithful to prayer.
11 June, the Laylat al-Qadr – the night of destiny – is celebrated according to tradition, during the Night of Destiny (Lailatu l-Qadr), where the Koran was shown in its entirety. It is called the Night of Destiny because in it Allah decrees the fate of creation for the year to come. It is identified as the holy night of the blessed month.
June 15, the end of Ramadan holiday, Eid ul-Fitr, will be celebrated. “Eid” in Arabic means: time of celebration, “Fitr” means: breaking the fast. These three days of celebration conclude the long month of fasting. During the three days of celebration, the most important for the Muslim tradition, special dishes are eaten, friends and relatives meet and pray together at meeting points or inside mosques.
On August 21, Id-al-adha is celebrated, or the feast of sacrifice. It is the Islamic festival celebrated every year in the lunar month of Dhū l Ḥijja, where the canonical pilgrimage takes place. This anniversary celebrates Ibrahim’s vocation to carry out the divine will. According to Islamic tradition, the sacrifice of a sheep, or goat, recalls the ram that was sacrificed in Ishmael’s place.
On 12 September, the Islamic New Year is celebrated which unlike other cultures is rather recognized as a commemoration of the day on which Muhammad established the Islamic calendar in conjunction with the First Islamic State, in the city of Medina. Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar, one of the four sacred months of the year. According to some, this holiday celebrates the passage of the Red Sea by Moses fleeing from Pharaoh. According to others, Adam and Eve, heaven and hell, life and death, fate and the pen were created on the tenth day of muharram. Fasting for the first ten days of muharram is a must among the Shiites, and Sunnis often also celebrate the ‘ashura with a fast, although in this case it is a “voluntary” fast and not compulsory as during Ramadan.
The ʿĀ shūrāʾ (from ʿ ashara , which in Arabic means “ten”) indicates the 10th of the lunar month of muharram, this year it will be celebrated between 20 and 21 September. It is an event celebrated in different ways and with reasons different in the Islamic world. In the Shiite world it has a markedly mournful character, while elsewhere it has less severe aspects and even in North Africa it has aspects of unbridled joy similar to the carnival.
Finally, on November 21, the Mawlid will be celebrated, it is an Islamic day that celebrates the birth day of a holy person. In particular, the birth date of the Prophet Muhammad ( Mawlid al-Nabī ) is honored, which occurs on the 12th of the lunar month of Rabi ‘al-awwal.