Fasting Hours across the World

Ramadan is the most sacred month of the Islamic calendar for Muslims. The holy month started on 6^th May in the Middle East after sighting of crescent whereas it started one day later in Indian subcontinent.The tradition began in the seventh century which commemorates the month when the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) retreated to a cave north of Mecca for spiritual contemplation. It is believed that God revealed the first verse of the Quran during the month on a night known as “The night of power” (Laylat al-Qadr).

During the entire month, Muslims fast every day from preceding sunrise (Fajr) to sunset (Maghreb) along with other rituals such as prayers, charity and intense reading of Quran. Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam along with testimony of faith, prayer, charity, pilgrimage to Mecca. It is believed that fasting serves several social purposes along with spiritual. Muslims are not supposed to avoid work and duties during the fast. In the Middle East countries, working hours are reduced during the month. However, such relaxation does not happen in most other parts of the world. 

Why the dates of Ramadan do changes every year?

For religious matters, Muslims follow lunar calendar that has only 354 days in a year rather than regular Gregorian calendar that has 365 days. Therefore, Islamic lunar calendar moves around 11 days backward each year and that’s why the first day of Ramadan, ninth month of Islamic lunar calendar, moves backward by around 11 days. This backward movement causes Ramadan to fall in different seasons as well.

The number of days for Ramadan are more or less same around the world but length of the fasting hours changes significantly. The angle of the sun in relation to earth’s horizon at any given location determines the length of the fasting hours. Muslims in Murmansk, Russia are going to fast longest hours with duration of 20.45 hours, whereas in Iceland, Sweden, and Alaska more than 19 hours a day this year. In Oslo, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, and Stockholm Muslims will fast for more than 18 hours per day. For countries where fasting hours are too long and Muslims feel they have been unfairly treated with lunar forces, Fatwa has been issued to follow the closest city’s reasonable timings (Source: Gulf News). While the city of Ushuaia in Argentina has the shortest fasting time in the world with 11 hours a day. In India, fasting hours will be around 14 hours a day this year.