Eid Al Fitr 2027

Type of holiday: statutory public holiday, a non-working day.

Eid Al Fitr marks the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Shawwal, the tenth month of the Hijri calendar. It is the larger of the two Eids in terms of how much of the country stops, and the days off attached to it are among the longest continuous breaks in the UAE year. Cabinet Resolution No. 27 of 2024 sets the non-working days as the first three days of Shawwal, with the last day of Ramadan added when that month runs its full length.

Why the date cannot be fixed in advance

A Hijri month begins when the new crescent is sighted, not when a formula says it should be. The UAE Council for Fatwa convenes on the evening of the twenty-ninth day of Ramadan; if the crescent is seen, Eid falls the next morning, and if it is not, Ramadan completes thirty days and Eid arrives a day later. In 2026 the crescent was not sighted on the evening of 18 March, Ramadan ran the full thirty days, and the festival began on Friday 20 March with the break covering 19 to 22 March. Astronomical calculation gives a good expectation of the date, but a difference of one day between the calculated and the declared date is normal rather than an error, and it is the declaration that governs.

The one holiday nobody can move

The Cabinet's power to shift a public holiday to the start or end of the working week, in the interest of a longer weekend, expressly excludes both Eids. Wherever the moon puts Eid Al Fitr, that is where it stays — even if the result is a block that opens on a Wednesday and cuts the working week in half.

What changes on the day

The Eid prayer is held shortly after sunrise at mosques and on open prayer grounds across the seven emirates, and the greeting exchanged afterwards is Eid Mubarak. Children are given eidiya, small gifts of money from relatives. Restaurants and cafés return to normal daytime service after a month in which food and drink were not served in public during daylight, and the shortened Ramadan working day set out in the labour law comes to an end. Airports run at their busiest of the year, malls extend their hours, and fireworks are staged across the emirates on the first evening.

For counting purposes the whole block leaves the working-day total: three days, or four when the last day of Ramadan is included. Because the block can open on any weekday, the length of the actual break varies year to year, and assuming a fixed four days off is the mistake most likely to disrupt a schedule built months ahead.