Islamic lunar calendar?

Question

I am writing a paper for a class and I would like to know how the Islamic calendar works? Do they have a regular cycle of sorts for how they attend prayer and do hoildays always fall on the same day?

Answer 1

Islamic Lunar calendar is different firstly by different number of days in a year, instead of 365 we have 355 days because this is how the moon works. Secondly, we pray five times a day which varies with the sun up and down timings whether we are in the east or the west. Our religious holidays are based on the lunar calendar and since sighting of the moon is unpredictable, the holidays quite often are undecided uptill the last moment. Yet there are Muslims who follow the calculated lunar cycles and estimate times for holidays etc.
Any other specific questions, do not hesitate to let me know, I would love to help out

Answer 2

i've got found some URLs in this, wish which will help :) and likely, the holiday journeys have a fixed date in accordance to the Hijr calendar, which even have 3 hundred and sixty 5 days extremely: a million) Muharram (for this reason 1st Muharram will continually be the Islamic New 3 hundred and sixty 5 days) 2) Safar 3) Rabi'ul awal 4) Rabi'ul akhir 5) Jamadil awal 6) Jamadil akhir 7) Rajab (suited now) 8) Sya'aban 9) Ramadhan (fasting month) 10) Syawal 11) Zulkaedah 12) Zulhijjah

Answer 3

i've found a few URLs on this, hope that will help :)

and yes, the holidays have a fixed date according to the Hijr calendar, which also have 12 months namely:
1) Muharram (thus 1st Muharram will always be the Islamic New Year)
2) Safar
3) Rabi'ul awal
4) Rabi'ul akhir
5) Jamadil awal
6) Jamadil akhir
7) Rajab (right now)
8) Sya'aban
9) Ramadhan (fasting month)
10) Syawal
11) Zulkaedah
12) Zulhijjah

Answer 4

If you haven't checked Wikipedia, I would suggest to check it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_calendar

I don't think I have anything extra to add to it other than the holidays do not fall on same as our calender.
It works in a way that every living person on this earth witnesses a holidy in a different season within 24 (or 25) years.

Like Christmas in USA always fall in winter and while it's winter here, other side of the world is witnessing summer.

Now likewise we have a month of Ramadan when we fast for a month and we would follow the same like the calender we use, people in middle east would always get really long days to fast while someone who is living in USA might be able to end his/her fast around 4:30. Nor a fair deal to someone who is in middle east, right?

Answer 5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_calendar
http://moonsighting.com/calendar.html
http://webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-islamic.html