Islamic New Year: Here's why it will be a long weekend in 2025
The announcement, made on Monday June 16, meant that we knew the official day off without waiting on the moon sighting committee to spot the crescent of Muharram.
Islamic New Year is one of several public holidays in the UAE that, traditionally, rely on the Hijri calendar to be determined.
Months in the Islamic Hijri calendar are either 29 or 30 days long, depending on the moon's visibility.
In 2024, the date of Islamic New Year fell on a weekend, which meant that for the majority of people living in the UAE, there was no additional day off to mark the occasion.
However, at the beginning of 2025, the UAE introduced a new public holiday law that allowed for more flexibility in when holidays tied to the Islamic Hijri calendar are celebrated.
Introduced on January 1 2025, the new law allows the UAE government to move holidays to the beginning or the end of the week and improve our chances of more long weekends throughout the year.
So, while the official start of the new Islamic year 1447 AH won't be confirmed until the evening of Wednesday June 25, we know that Friday June 27 will be an official holiday for the private and public sectors.
Current astronomical predictions indicate that Dhu Al Hijjah will be a 29-day month, which would mean that Thursday June 26 is the likely first day of the Islamic year. But if Dhu Al Hijjah is a 30-day month, then Friday June 27 will be the first day of the break.
The Islamic New Year public holiday has been announced (Credit: Canva)
This would have no bearing on the start of the public holiday, however, as only one day is set aside for the occasion in the UAE public holiday law.
The article in the UAE public holiday law related to the transfer of official holidays applies to all occasions except Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha. If the Eid holidays fall on a weekend, then they won't shift to another time of the week.
However, the Islamic New Year and Prophet Muhammad's Birthday (PBUH) are holidays that can now move around the week to give us a long weekend.
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