First day of ramadan

what the first day of the week

What the first day of the week is depends on which week you mean. An ISO week starts on Monday. Many U.S. wall calendars still put Sunday in the first column. In Arabic the days are numbered from al-Ahad, Sunday, through to al-Sabt, Saturday, with Friday as jumu‘ah, the congregational noon. That religious week is not the same object as 1 Ramadan. The first day of the month can fall on any weekday. The first column of a planner cannot rename it.

Islamic days begin at sunset, not at midnight. The night of 1 Ramadan starts at maghrib of the previous civil evening, once the month has been established. Tarawih that night belongs to the month even though the first daylight fast is the next sunrise-to-sunset span. People who ask “is tonight the first day” and people who ask “is tomorrow the first fast” are often one evening apart on purpose. Name which you mean.

In 2026, on the Umm al-Qura calendar, 1 Ramadan was Wednesday 18 February. That fast is over. From Thursday 3 September 2026 the next expected 1 Ramadan, on the same civil conversion, is Monday 8 February 2027. A local sighting can still place a community on Sunday 7 February or Tuesday 9 February. The weekday is a label after the month is known. It is not the method for finding the month.

How 1 Ramadan is actually decided

Two common methods sit side by side. One waits for a reliable crescent after the 29th of Sha‘ban. The other uses a calculated calendar, such as Umm al-Qura, and publishes the civil date in advance. A country, a mosque, or a household picks a method and lives with it. Mixing both on the same suhoor is how a family argues at 4 a.m.

The first day is 1 Ramadan, not the first Monday of February. The first fast is the daylight after the month has begun. The first tarawih is the night the month has begun, which may be the civil evening before that fast.

Friday on that week is still jumu‘ah; it does not become a second opening. Eid is not the first day. Eid is after the last day. If 1 Ramadan falls on a Friday, you still fast the daylight and you still attend Friday prayer if that is your practice. The congregational day did not cancel the month. If 1 Ramadan falls on a Sunday, a U.S. school is not closed for it unless that school said so. The first day of the week on the classroom chart is a printing choice. The first day of Ramadan is a lunar one.

Do not hunt for the month in the Monday column. Hunt for the crescent, or for the calendar your mosque already posted.

What to do on that first daylight

Eat suhoor in time. Stop at fajr. Break at maghrib. The first iftar is often dates and water, then a meal. That custom is widespread. It is not a test you fail if the plate is soup. People who cannot fast for a reason recognised in their school of law follow that rule; this page is not a ruling. Workplaces in the United States treat the Monday or Wednesday as an ordinary civil day unless they added leave. Wish Ramadan Mubarak. Do not wish Eid Mubarak yet.

The first day of the week will be whatever weekday 1 Ramadan landed on. In the expected 2027 conversion that weekday is Monday. That is convenient for people who like a clean office week. Convenience is not the criterion. If the moon places the fast on Sunday, the fast is Sunday. Write the Hijri date first. Convert second. The planner’s left-hand column can wait.