Browse our online guide to Ramadan 2010 and find out about fasting and iftars, send in your Ramadan photos, check out the daily prayer times and make a note of the different opening hours for malls and various institutions.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. The calendar follows the moon – the start and end of the month are determined by the sighting of the new moon – so Ramadan occurs about 11 days earlier each Gregorian year.

Did you know?

• The word ‘Ramadan’ actually comes from the Arabic ‘ramida’ meaning ‘parched thirst’ or ‘sun-baked ground’. It is expressive of the hunger and thirst felt by those who spend the month in fasting. As opposed to other holidays, when people often indulge, Ramadan is by nature a time of sacrifice. During Ramadan Muslims refrain from eating, drinking and intimate behaviour from dawn until sunset. Fasting is meant to teach patience, modesty and spirituality
• Sometimes referred to as ‘the night of decree or measures’, Laylat al-Qadr is considered the most holy night of the year, as it is the night in which the Qur'an was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
• Muslims are encouraged to fast for a further six days after the end of the Holy month, sometimes referred to as ‘the white six’
• The elderly, the chronically ill and the disabled are exempt from fasting. Pregnant women, women during the period of their menstruation, and women nursing their newborn child are also exempt from fasting
• In addition to fasting, Muslims are encouraged to read the entire Qur'an. Some Muslims perform the recitation of the entire Qur'an by means of special prayers, called Tarawih, which are held in the mosques every night of the month, during which a whole section of the Qur'an is recited
• The Islamic holiday of Eid ul-Fitr (Festival of breaking the fast) marks the end of the fasting period of Ramadan