Other days of the Islamic calendar
How the world celebratesBeyond Ramadan and the two Eids, the Islamic calendar carries several more days: the New Year on 1 Muharram, Ashura on 10 Muharram, the Prophet's birthday, and Isra Mi'raj. Of the seven places compared here, only Indonesia and India put any of them on the official calendar — and the two do not mark the same day. Indonesia takes 1 Muharram; India's gazetted "Muharram" is the tenth, Ashura, a full ten days later in 2026. Their Mawlid dates fall a day apart. How the date is fixed, and by whom, tells you more than the date itself.
Quick answers
- When is it?
- Indonesia · August 25, 2026; India · August 26, 2026
- How do places mark it?
- United States; Indonesia · Maulid Nabi Muhammad saw. · 伊斯蘭曆 Rabiul Awal 月十二日；公曆日期由三部長聯合決定書逐年公告; India · मिलाद-उन-नबी (Milad-un-Nabi / Id-e-Milad) · 伊斯蘭曆 Rabiul Awal 月十二日；日期列入中央政府年度 gazetted holidays; Brazil; China; Japan; Taiwan
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How the world celebrates
- August 25, 2026Local date伊斯蘭曆 Rabiul Awal 月十二日；公曆日期由三部長聯合決定書逐年公告
IndonesiaMaulid Nabi Muhammad saw.
The Prophet's birthday, Maulid Nabi Muhammad, falls on 12 Rabiul Awal — 25 August 2026 in Indonesia, a Tuesday, and a national holiday. Indonesian practice centres on recitations of the Prophet's life through barzanji and maulid texts, sermons, shared meals and charitable distribution. Local forms differ: the courts of Yogyakarta and Surakarta hold Sekaten, a fair with gamelan that runs for weeks and closes with the Grebeg Maulud procession of mountain-shaped offerings. The same religious commemoration has grown into a civic fair inside the palace culture — a layer particular to Indonesia.
- August 26, 2026Local date伊斯蘭曆 Rabiul Awal 月十二日；日期列入中央政府年度 gazetted holidays
Indiaमिलाद-उन-नबी (Milad-un-Nabi / Id-e-Milad)
The Prophet's birthday is known in India as Milad-un-Nabi or Id-e-Milad and likewise appears in the central government's gazetted holidays — 26 August 2026, a Wednesday. Indonesia's falls on 25 August, one day earlier. A single day's difference of this kind comes from how each country determines and announces the sighting of the moon, not from anyone miscalculating. Indian observance includes recitation and sermons at mosques, jaloos processions, and the distribution of food, with the larger processions in Hyderabad and Old Delhi. Note that India's holiday system has two tiers, compulsory gazetted and restricted; Milad-un-Nabi sits in the first, the tier on which offices nationwide close.
- January 5, 2027Local dateEstimated date伊斯蘭曆 Rajab 月二十七日；公曆日期由三部長聯合決定書逐年公告
IndonesiaIsra Mikraj Nabi Muhammad saw.
Isra Mi'raj commemorates the account of the Prophet's night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and his ascent through the heavens, falling on 27 Rajab. Indonesia lists it as a national holiday; in 2026 it fell on 16 January, a Friday. It is not a festive day: the substance is sermons and gatherings at mosques and Islamic schools, recalling the night on which the five daily prayers were ordained. What is notable is how far Indonesia carries the Islamic calendar into its statutory holidays — Isra Mi'raj, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, the Islamic New Year and the Prophet's birthday each take a day or more, all five announced annually in the same joint decree of three ministers.
- June 6, 2027Local dateEstimated date伊斯蘭曆 Muharram 月一日；公曆日期由三部長聯合決定書逐年公告
Indonesia1 Muharam Tahun Baru Islam
The Islamic New Year falls on 1 Muharram, called in Indonesia 1 Muharam Tahun Baru Islam; in 2026 it was 16 June, a Tuesday, opening the year 1448 of the Hijri calendar. It is a public holiday but not a celebratory one — the Islamic new year has no countdown and no fireworks, and the day leans toward reflection, prayer and family gatherings, with night processions and vow-making traditions in parts of Java. The date is announced in advance through the joint decree of the ministers of religion, manpower and administrative reform, unlike Eid al-Fitr, which waits for the previous evening's sidang isbat: a new year can be settled by calculation and needs no moon sighting.
- June 15, 2027Local dateEstimated date伊斯蘭曆 Muharram 月十日（阿舒拉），非該月一日；日期列入中央政府年度 gazetted holidays
Indiaमुहर्रम (Muharram / Ashura)
India's annual list of central government gazetted holidays contains a holiday called Muharram, but it does **not** mean the first of the month. It marks the tenth day, Ashura — 26 June 2026, a Friday. That is a full ten days after the 16 June that Indonesia observes: the same lunar month, different days, not a calendrical discrepancy. For Shia communities Ashura mourns the martyrdom of Husayn at Karbala, and tazia processions and mourning assemblies are held across India; Sunni observance leans toward fasting. India lists it as a compulsory closed holiday, so central government offices shut for the day.
- Not observed hereLocal dateNot on the official list
Brazil
Brazil has no national Islamic holiday. Federal holidays are fixed by Law 662 of 1949, a list combining secular and Catholic tradition and containing no Islamic festival; Law 9,093 of 1995 then devolves the designation of religious holidays to municipalities, capped at four days each including Good Friday. So Brazil does leave an opening at local level, but it is a narrow one — in most cities the four-day allowance is long since filled by existing Catholic feasts. Observance is therefore arranged by mosques and Islamic centres themselves, with the larger communities in São Paulo and Foz do Iguaçu.
- Not observed hereLocal dateNot on the official list
China
China does not place the Islamic New Year or the Prophet's birthday on any holiday list. What is worth noting is that not even Ningxia does. The Hui Autonomous Region's annual holiday notice lists exactly two Islamic festivals — Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha (in 2026, Eid al-Fitr on 21 March fell on a Saturday and Eid al-Adha took 27–28 May as two days off) — and neither Mawlid nor the Islamic New Year appears. So even in the place with China's densest Muslim population and the autonomous-region authority to grant holidays, institutional recognition stops at those two festivals. At national level the Measures on National Annual Festivals and Commemorative Days contain no religious festival at all.
- Not observed hereLocal dateNot on the official list
Japan
Japan has no Islamic holiday of any kind. The national holidays are all written into the Act on National Holidays, a closed list that can be extended only by amending the law, and Japan has no mechanism for religious holidays at local level — neither prefectures nor municipalities may add one. The days on the list are secular in framing: New Year's Day, Coming of Age Day, National Foundation Day and the like, with anything once religious rewritten under a non-religious name. So the Islamic New Year and the Prophet's birthday are marked entirely inside mosques and Muslim communities, at gatherings such as those at Tokyo Camii, with no bearing on the national calendar.
- Not observed hereLocal dateNot on the official list
Taiwan
Taiwan's Act on Commemorative Days and Holidays contains no Islamic observance at all; neither the Islamic New Year nor the Prophet's birthday appears in it. The state's single point of contact with the Islamic calendar is what the Workforce Development Agency does for Eid al-Fitr: it asks employers to arrange or agree to leave around the day so migrant workers can attend collective prayers. That is an administrative appeal rather than a holiday, and it covers Eid al-Fitr only. Mawlid and the Islamic New Year receive not even that; the actual observance happens at the Taipei Grand Mosque and other prayer halls, arranged by the community itself and never entering the state calendar.
- Not observed hereLocal dateNot on the official list
United States
There is no federal Islamic holiday in the United States. To see how far Muslim festivals are recognised there, you have to look down to the school district: New York City's public school calendar closes for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, and that is the largest district in the country, a decision touching roughly a million students. But even in New York City the closures cover only those two festivals — Mawlid and the Islamic New Year do not appear on the calendar. So the American mechanism of recognition is not federal legislation but local education administration; and the range that local education administration recognises turns out to be exactly the range Ningxia recognises in China: the two Eids, and nothing beyond them.
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.