The 2024 Ramadan season starts began March 10 and ends April 9. This is an annual holiday for Islam that is known for daily fasting. The fast entails abstinence from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual relations during daylight hours to achieve greater “taqwa”, or consciousness of God. The word “Ramadan” itself comes from the Arabic term “Ramad / Ramida,” which means scorching heat or drought. Fasting symbolizes abstinence from eating, drinking, and other physical needs during daylight hours. Fasting is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, emphasizing piety, self-discipline, and spiritual reflection.
What Does Ramadan Celebrate?
Islam tradition believes that the Prophet Muhammad was given the Qur’an, Islam’s holy text, during Ramadan, according to Britannica.
What Do Muslims Do During Ramadan?
Ramadan is a time of self reflection, prayer and studying the Qur’an.
Muslims practice restraint, one of the five pillars of Islam, during Ramadan. Fasting is the most well known practice of restraint during Ramadan, but it can be interpreted to include sexual activity, immoral behavior and impure or unkind thoughts.
The restraint from these activities is practiced from sun up to sun down. During this time, Muslims may not eat or drink, including water. Muslims will generally eat breakfast before dawn and dinner after dusk. The early morning breakfast is called suhur, and is most commonly eaten at home. The evening meal is called iftar and is often a communal event. Iftar may take place at mosques or community centers.
Because fasting is physically taxing, exemptions are often given for children, elderly, pregnant women and the ill.
The end of the Ramadan fast is celebrated as one of the two major Muslim holidays, called Eid ul-Fitr, Gifts, celebrations, special prayers and sermons are common for Eid ul-Fitr.
