Islamic New Year
16 June 2026 · movable holiday — May the new year bring peace, light and goodness to your home.
The Islamic New Year, or Hijri New Year, marks the first day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. The calendar is lunar: months begin with the sighting of the new crescent moon, and a year lasts about 354 or 355 days. That is roughly 11 days shorter than the solar year, so the holiday drifts through the seasons, falling earlier each year in the Gregorian calendar. Year counting starts from the Hijra, the migration of the Prophet Muhammad and the first Muslims from Mecca to Medina, in 622 CE. Choosing this event as the start of the era is traditionally linked to Caliph Umar. The day is observed quietly, with prayer, reflection on the past year, kind wishes and charity. Customs vary from country to country, and for Shia Muslims and Alevis Muharram also begins a period of remembrance of Imam Husayn. Muharram is one of the four sacred months in Islam. Its start is set by sighting the new crescent or, as in Turkey, by astronomical calculation of its appearance, so the sky is directly tied to this holiday. The exact date may differ by a day depending on the country and the method of determination.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver thin crescent moon made of luminous dots and fine lines, like a constellation, appearing low over the western horizon at dusk and drifting gently across the night sky, leaving a faint trail of tiny stars
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