Rites Around the World

The traditional festival celebrates the summer solstice with overnight festivities such as people singing and dancing before jumping over campfires, as they believe it will purge them of their sins and make them healthier.

Bonalu is a Hindu folk festival of the Telangana region in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

Religious authorities in Jordan declared that Friday will be the start of the holy month of Ramadan.

More than 1,400 children gathered at a park in Indonesia to read the Koran to mark the holy month of Ramadan, which will start on Saturday, during an event organised by a local charity organisation.

The government set Ramadan to fall on July 21, 2012.

The new moon heralds the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a time of fasting, prayer and charitable giving for Muslims worldwide. Bahrain announced Ramadan officially begins Friday in the kingdom.

Religious authorities in Jordan declared that Friday will be the start of the holy month of Ramadan, a period devoted to dawn-to-dusk fasting, prayers and spiritual introspection.
Ramadan begins around 11 days earlier each year. Its start is calculated based on the sighting of the new moon, which marks the beginning of the Muslim lunar month that varies between 29 or 30 days.

Many Muslims will observe the start of Ramadan on Friday, although some begin and end the fast before or after others because they follow different rules or disagree on whether they have spotted the new crescent moon that marks the start of the month in Islam's lunar calendar.

Ramadan 2012 will start on Friday, July 20 and will continue for 30 days until the August 18.

The mosque which was constructed in 897A.D. is one the oldest and largest mosques in the world, and was built by the founder of Egypt's Tulunid Dynasty (868-905 AD), Ahmad ibn Tulun.

Muslims scan the sky at dusk in the beginning of the lunar calendar's ninth month in search of the new moon to proclaim the start of Ramadan, Islam's holiest month, during which observant believers fast from dawn to dusk. Muslims in Malaysia begin the fasting month of Ramadan on Saturday.

Many Muslims will observe the start of Ramadan on Friday, although some begin and end the fast before or after others because they follow different rules or disagree on whether they have spotted the new crescent moon that marks the start of the month in Islam's lunar calendar.