When Is Ramadan 2027 in the USA? Dates, Eid and Why Mosques Differ

These are the dates on the calculated calendar, the one your mosque's timetable will use if it follows the Fiqh Council of North America. The Umm al-Qura calendar, whose official site is run by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, has every one of them on the same day.

One thing trips people up every year. In the Islamic calendar a night belongs to the day after it, not the day before. That's why taraweeh begins the evening before the first fast, and why each special night falls on the evening before the date it's named for.

American mosques don't all decide the same way.

The Fiqh Council of North America calculates. A new month begins the next day if, at sunset somewhere in the world, the moon is at least 8 degrees from the sun and at least 5 degrees above the horizon. The Council says it accepts the validity of other opinions, and it encourages Muslims to follow their local masjid. In 2027 the new moon is born at 15:56 Universal Time on Saturday 6 February, just before 11 in the morning in New York. At sunset that day the Council's figures put it short of both limits everywhere on earth, so on its calendar Shaban runs to 30 days and Ramadan starts on the Monday.

The Central Hilal Committee of North America waits to see it. Its local committees across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean look for the crescent on the evening of the 29th, and the committee accepts a report only from someone who saw it with their own eyes, not from someone repeating what they were told. It says the fast is based on seeing the crescent, not on calculation. If nobody sees it, the month runs to 30 days. Some other mosques accept a sighting from anywhere in the world.

Meeting the Council's limits isn't the same as being seen. In 2026 the limits were met on the evening of 17 February, but the Council itself said the crescent couldn't practically be seen anywhere on earth that night. That's why the two calendars started a day apart. For 2027 the Council's figures put the moon above both limits everywhere in North America on Sunday evening, 7 February. If a mosque's 29th of Shaban falls that evening and nobody sees the crescent, its first fast is Tuesday 9 February.

The sighting rule goes back to the Prophet ﷺ, who said to start fasting on seeing the crescent, to stop on seeing it, and to complete thirty days of Shaban if the sky is overcast (Sahih al-Bukhari 1909). Scholars differ on whether a calculation can stand in for that sighting. We don't take a side. Ask your imam which method your mosque follows.

On paper, yes. The Umm al-Qura calendar puts 1 Ramadan 1448 on Monday 8 February 2027 and 1 Shawwal on Tuesday 9 March, and for 1448 it matches the Fiqh Council's calendar month for month.

Saudi Arabia doesn't start Ramadan from the calendar, though. Its Supreme Court asks people to look for the crescent on the evening of the 29th of Shaban, by eye or through binoculars, and to report a sighting to the nearest court. The start is announced once the court has considered the reports. Last year it matched the calculated date, while several countries in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa began a day later.

Then there's the clock. Saudi Arabia is three hours ahead of Universal Time all year, with no daylight saving. In February that puts Makkah eight hours ahead of New York and eleven ahead of California. The sun sets on the Haram around 6:26 in the evening on 5 March, so the 27th night begins there while it's still morning on both coasts.

The Prophet ﷺ said to search for Laylat al-Qadr in the odd nights of the last ten days of Ramadan (Sahih al-Bukhari 2017). Counting from a first fast on Monday 8 February, these are the evenings they begin. Each runs from that sunset until dawn the next morning.

On the timetable used below, every one of these cities fasts under 13 hours, even on the last day. On the first day the fast runs from under eleven and a half hours in Seattle to just over twelve in Miami. By the last, all six are within two minutes of 12 hours 51 minutes.

The figures run from dawn to sunset on 8 February and 8 March, on the Islamic Society of North America method, which puts dawn when the sun is 15 degrees below the horizon. A mosque that uses the Muslim World League's 18 degrees starts the fast earlier, by 13 to 18 minutes in these cities, and on that timetable the last fasts run just past 13 hours. Fast by your own mosque's timetable.

On the calculated calendar Eid al-Fitr is Tuesday 9 March 2027. A mosque that waits for a sighting looks for the Shawwal crescent on the evening of its 29th fast and announces Eid that night, so its Eid can come a day later. A month in the Islamic calendar is never shorter than 29 days or longer than 30, so your Eid falls 29 or 30 days after your mosque's first fast.

It's a working Tuesday, so ask for the day off early. New York City's public schools have already marked 9 March 2027 as closed for Eid al-Fitr on their 2026-27 calendar. Other districts set their own.

If you're thinking of spending part of the month in Makkah, the dates above decide which part you'd get. Our three Ramadan departures run on fixed dates. A sighting can shift which night of Ramadan falls on which evening of your trip, but it doesn't move the trip. On the calculated calendar: