Muslim · worldwide · the date moves each year

Eid al-Fitr

The feast that ends Ramadan — new clothes, sweets, and giving before the prayer.

What happened

Ramadan is a month of fasting from dawn to sunset; Eid al-Fitr is the morning it ends. Because the Islamic calendar is lunar and the month begins with the sighting of the new moon, the date moves through the seasons and may differ by a day between countries. Before the Eid prayer, every household gives zakat al-fitr so that nobody is left out of the feast.

Why it stuck

The giving happens before the eating, and it is required, not optional. That ordering is the lesson.

What a family can do

Something new to wear, something sweet to eat, and something given away first.

Questions to work through

1. Why would the date of a holiday be different in two countries in the same year?
2. The charity comes before the feast. Why that order?
3. A lunar year is about 11 days shorter than a solar one. Work out where Ramadan will fall in ten years.