The end of Thanksgiving break will mark the start of a new year for some University students — as the Islamic New Year falls on Sunday Nov. 27, marking the start of a new year in the Muslim lunar calendar.

Muslim students describe the Islamic New Year as a more 'low-key' celebration than other religious holidays. FILE/Photo

“Well, the day is going to be happening in a few days,” said Matib Ahmad, a senior Arabic major from Atlanta. “We have different months and different months have different names and it’s based on the lunar calendar. It’s based on how many time the moon rotates around the earth.”

According to the lunar calendar, every year the New Year begins 10 to 12 days earlier and in 2012 will fall on Nov. 15. According to Ahmad and the Islamic calendar, this Sunday marks the beginning of the year 1433 A.H. and start of the month Muharram.

“It’s been 1,433 years since the migration of the Prophet Muhammed from Mecca to Madina,” Ahmad said.

He also said that the New Year is not traditionally as celebrated by members of the Muslim faith as the two Eids —festivals — which occur earlier in the year.

Eid ul-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month Ramadan, was celebrated this year in August. For this festival, people gather and celebrate by cooking food and sharing food with friends and family.

Eid al-Adha, which passed in 2011 on Nov. 6 through Nov. 9, annually celebrates Abraham’s act of obedience to God — in his willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael, according to the writings of the Quran. For this holiday, Muslim families pray in large groups and often sacrifice or pay someone to sacrifice a domestic animal like a cow, keeping a part of the meat for their immediate family, giving part to extended family and giving part to charity.

Though Islamic New Year remains a more low-key holiday than the Eids, Ahmad said on the first day of the new year people might wish each other the best and say to each other, ”Kul ’am wa enta bi-khair,” which means, “May every year find you in good health.”

Aisha Yaqoob, a sophomore Public Relations major from Suwannee, said her family treats the holiday as a chance to gather together and reflect on the previous year.

“It’s definitely not as big as the [January] New Year,” she said. “What gets celebrated is the fact that — how my family does it — another year has passed.”

Yaqoob said that she and her family look at their spirituality the past year, how the year progressed and look for how they can maintain or deepen their faith in the coming year.

Unlike the New Year celebrations in January, the Islamic New Year is not rung in by a countdown, nor are special foods consumed on the day of — but like the Western New Year, some people make resolutions for the coming year.

Yaqoob, who has lived in America her whole life, said that resolutions are more of a Western tradition, but sometimes, her family will make them with goals in mind to deepen their faith.

“The resolution’s definitely not as superficial as I’m going to go to the gym five days a week,” she said.

Ahmad and Yaqoob agree, that while the holiday is not as ‘hyped up’ as the holiday in January or the Eids, it provides another moment to recognize and celebrate their faith.