The UAE's moon-sighting committee has announced that the crescent moon — which signals the start of a month in the Islamic Hijri calendar — was not spotted yesterday, making it official: the holy month of Ramadan will begin in the UAE on Thursday, March 23.

More than 14 other Ramadan-observing countries around the world are set to announce the start of the holy month today, Wednesday, March 22, once the crescent is spotted – meaning that Ramadan in these countries will fall on either Thursday, March 23, or Friday, March 24.

The full list of countries that will announce the start of Ramadan today is as follows:

  1. Indonesia
  2. Malaysia
  3. Brunei
  4. India
  5. Bangladesh
  6. Afghanistan
  7. Pakistan
  8. Iran
  9. Oman
  10. Jordan
  11. Algeria
  12. Morocco
  13. Mauritania.

So far, 17 countries have announced Thursday, March 23 as the beginning of Ramadan. These are:

  1. UAE
  2. Bahrain
  3. Sudan
  4. Somalia
  5. Iraq
  6. Kuwait
  7. Saudi Arabia
  8. Yemen
  9. Turkey
  10. Tunisia
  11. Djibouti
  12. Syria
  13. Palestine
  14. Qatar
  15. Lebanon
  16. Libya
  17. Egypt

As per astronomical calculations, the holy month will last for 29 days this year. The first day of Eid Al Fitr is likely to be on Friday, April 21, and residents will get a four-day weekend to mark the occasion.

 

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