Islamic New Year

The Islamic New Year (Arabic: رأس السنة الهجرية‎, Raʿs as-Sanah al-Hijrīyah), also called the Hijri New Year or Arabic New Year, is the day that marks the beginning of a new Hijri year, and is the day on which the year count is incremented. The first day of the Islamic year is observed by Muslims on the first day of the month of Muharram. The epoch (reference date) of the Islamic era was set as 622 Common Era (CE), the year of the emigration of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina, known as the Hijra.[1] All religious duties, such as prayer, fasting in the month of Ramadan, and pilgrimage, and the dates of significant events, such as celebration of holy nights and festivals, are calculated according to the Islamic calendar.

Not to be confused with Nowruz, the New Year in the solar Hijri calendar.

Islamic New Year
Official name	رأس السنة الهجرية‎ Raʿs as-Sanah al-Hijrīyah
Also called	Arabic New Year, Hijri New Year
Observed by	Muslims
Type	Islamic
Begins	sunset, last day of Dhu al-Hijjah
Ends	dusk, 1 Muharram
Date	1 Muharram

While some Islamic organizations prefer determining the new month (and hence the new year) by local sightings of the moon,[2] most Islamic institutions and countries, including Saudi Arabia,[3] follow astronomical calculations to determine future dates of the Islamic calendar. There are various schemas for calculating the tabular Islamic calendar (i.e. not based on observation), which results in differences of typically one or even two days between countries using such schema and those that use lunar sightings. For example, the Umm al-Qura calendar used in Saudi Arabia was reformed several times in recent years. The current scheme was introduced in 1423 AH (15 March 2002).[4]

A day in the Islamic calendar is defined as beginning at sunset. For example, 1 Muharram 1432 was defined to correspond to 7 or 8 December 2010 in official calendars (depending on the country). For an observation-based calendar, a sighting of the new moon at sunset of 6 December would mean that 1 Muharram lasted from the moment of sunset of 6 December to the moment of sunset of 7 December, while in places where the new moon was not sighted on 6 December 1 Muharram would last from the moment of sunset of 7 December to the moment of sunset of 8 December.[5]

Gregorian correspondence

Main article: List of Islamic years

Since the Islamic lunar year is eleven to twelve days shorter than the solar Gregorian year, the Islamic New Year does not occur on the same day of the Gregorian calendar every year.

The following dates are predicted for the Gregorian calendar correspond to the Islamic new year:[6]

Islamic year	Gregorian date
1438 AH	2 October 2016
1439 AH	22 September 2017
1440 AH	11 September 2018
1441 AH	1 September 2019
1442 AH	20 August 2020

See also

• Solar Hijri calendar
• Arabic names of Gregorian months
• Pre-Islamic Arabian calendar
• Assyrian calendar
• Hebrew calendar
• Persian calendar
• Babylonian calendar
• Bahá'í calendar

References

1. The Beginning of Hijri calendar Archived 1 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine – Paul Lunde, Saudi Aramco World Magazine (November/December 2005), retrieved 1 January 2019
2. "Islamic Crescents' Observation Project". Archived from the original on 12 November 2018. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
3. "Islamic Crescents' Observation Project: Saudi Dating System". Archived from the original on 30 October 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
4. Robert Harry van Gent, The Umm al-Qura Calendar of Saudi Arabia Archived 11 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
5. Islamic Crescents' Observation Project, Visibility of Muharram Crescent 1432 AH Archived 10 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine; seen on 6 December in Algeria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Africa.
6. "Principal Islamic days of observation (1420 AH to 1450 AH)". Archived from the original on 9 September 2017. Retrieved 20 September 2017.

External links

• Hijri and Gregorian Calendar, Date Conversion on islamicfinder.org
• Islamic New Year (BBC Religion)