Ramadan Fasting Times - How are they defined ?

Update 15.2.26: This year marks a relatively rare coincidence of events in two of the great Abrahamic religions - Christianity and Islam. 

Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, and Lent, the Christian festival leading up to Easter, traditionally both involve  period of personal abstinence and reflection. It's no coincidence that the start of both of these periods are dependent on our only astronomical satellite, the Moon, which is by far the brightest object in the night sky and thus an important determinant in early religious calendars.

In the Christian calendar, the Paschal full moon determines the date of Easter (first Sunday thereafter) each year, and its calendar variability, which is due to the failure of calendar and lunar months to coincide, causes the timing of Easter to vary over a period of over about a month from year to year (March 21-April 25). Lent traditionally starts 40 days before Easter on Ash Wednesday (Sundays are excluded from the calculation).  

Ramadan is also dependent on the Islamic calendar which is Lunar. Its start traditionally coincides with the first sighting of the new moon in the 9th month of the Lunar calendar (although in practice the astronomical timing of the New Moon is normally used nowadays for consistency). This dependence on the moon means that the timing of both festivals is global. It also means that every 20 years or so the start of both religious festivals coincide on the same calendar day. This year, 2026, marks one of these events, with both Ash Wednesday and the start of Ramadan falling on 18th February.

Although there are no stipulations as to the timing of fasting durig the day in the Christian calendar, this aspect of personal abstinence is more tightly controlled in Islam. The period of fasting, and in particular the start of the islamic fasting period each day, is dependent on the appearance of the sun in the sky, and thus will vary significantly from place to place.

The start of Fajr (the islamic dawn prayer) is defined as '...the point at which the sun reaches 18 degrees below the horizon..". This corresponds to the beginning  of astronomical twilight. Fajr finishes at the point of sunrise. During Ramadan, fasting is normally practised by all adult muslims during daylight hours between the start of Fajr and astronomical sunset. 

Although there are specialised tables available online for Ramadan fasting times each year, these tend to be aimed at the larger centres of population.  Since the exact start and finish times for fasting each day are linked to astronomical phenomena, they will of course vary between different locations, and precise values may not always be provided by national mosques for our smaller towns and villages. 

Even in a relatively small island such as the UK, variations in both latitude and longitude can lead to significant differences between places, particularly if Ramadan falls close to either solstice; the range of latitude we experience in these islands (ca 50-60 degrees N) in particular can lead to big differences in sunrise and sunset times. 

As we've discussed, the Islamic Lunar calendar is out of step with the Gregorian one we all now use, and this results in a steady 'drift' of Ramadan, falling ca 11 days earlier each year.  If Ramadan falls in midsummer, when astronomical twilight lasts all night in much of mainland Britain, special arrangements for fasting times will obviously need to apply. The position is a lot easier during the winter months, when daylight can last as little as 5-6 hours in our northern isles.

For anyone needing precise times for sunrise and sunset at their own location over the Ramadan period next year, the Almanac app for MS Excel will calculate sunrise and sunset times for any location on any date from its precise latitude and longitude.

Almanac also calculates Astronomical, Nautical and Civil twilight periods, and will thus provide an accurate estimate of the start and finish times for Fajr, and hence the times for that year's Ramadan fasts, each day. The program will also provide information on a wealth of other possible astronomical observations, including the positions of the planets, moon and many other celestial objects in the sky at any location, date and time, and charts to show changes as the seasons progress. It will even provide a list of forthcoming solar and lunar eclipses. There are also links to UK and Worldwide tide table calculators which may be of interest to those planning a seaside holiday this year.

You can download the Excel app here.

Since the calculations aren't limited to a single year, you can also use it for the 2027 and subsequent Ramadan periods. 

If you want to plan ahead, you can also find the start dates for Ramadan for any year between 2024 and 2034 by downloading the Excel Diary app (use this link to access the Downloads page and select Diary.xlsm from the list). The app will also provide the date of Eid, which marks the end of the Ramadan fasting period. The software will incorporate these and other notable dates generated for any year you select into a convenient year-planner format. You can then either print the planner out as landscape A4 or store as a .pdf. (As an additional 'extra' for those who have trouble remembering when to put their bins out (i.e. most of us!), it will even work out and include the dates for your recycling and general waste bin collections for the year on the plan - see link for more details).

All you need is a pc with a working copy of MS Office (2010 or later)....

First published 12.3.25; Revised 15.2.26