Why Ramadan Comes 11 Days Earlier Every Year
If you remember Ramadan in the summer as a child, you have probably noticed that it now comes in winter. Ramadan, and every other Islamic date, moves about 11 days earlier in the Gregorian calendar each year. Here is why.
The arithmetic
Ramadan is the ninth month of the lunar Hijri calendar. Twelve lunar months last about 354.37 days, while the solar year that the Gregorian calendar follows lasts about 365.24 days. The difference is about 10.9 days. Every year the Hijri calendar finishes that much sooner, so each Hijri month begins roughly 11 days earlier than the year before.
A 33-year cycle through the seasons
Dividing 365 by 11 gives about 33. In roughly 33 years Ramadan travels through every season and comes back to the same time of year. Over a lifetime, a Muslim fasts in every season more than once. The Quran describes the moon's phases as a way "that you may know the number of years and account [of time]" (10:5), and the lunar calendar shares the long and short days of the year fairly between people in the north and the south.
What it means for fasting hours
The length of a fast depends on the time from Fajr to Maghrib, and so on the season and your latitude. When Ramadan falls near the June solstice, fasts in northern Europe can last more than 18 hours, while in the southern hemisphere they are short; near the December solstice it is the other way round. Ramadan began in mid-February in 2026 and starts in early February 2027, moving into January and then December, so fasts in the northern hemisphere will stay relatively short for the next decade. Ramadan returns to June around 2047–2049.
Two Ramadans in one year
Because the Hijri year is shorter, a Gregorian year sometimes contains the start of two Ramadans. This next happens in 2030, with Ramadan 1451 beginning around 5 January and Ramadan 1452 around 26 December. The same effect gives two Islamic New Years in 2041.
Plan ahead
See the start date and timetable for your city on our Ramadan page, or follow the live countdown to Ramadan.
Sources and Verification
This article was written by Fatah Nasrat and checked against the official, scientific and academic sources below. HijriTime does not copy source texts; it explains their methods and findings in its own words.
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