Muslims fasting in Iceland face more than 20 hours of daylight during summer Ramadan

Visa data shows Muslim spending spikes at night during Ramadan

Fasting during the day reschedules economic activity to the night. Visa's spending data shows a surge in Muslim-majority markets during Ramadan at night as restaurants and retailers orient themselves around iftar. The pattern has become a significant target for advertisers and brands.

A diary of fasting through all 30 days of Ramadan

Aramco World's first-person account follows one Muslim through a full month of fasting—the pre-dawn suhoor meal, the hunger wall, the social texture of iftar. Get a sense of the day-to-day of Ramadan with this experiential guide.

A 101 on why Ramadan is the holiest time of the Muslim year

As a spiritual guide for members of the Brandeis University community, this overview surfaces the highlights to orient readers on Ramadan logistics, practices, and obligations. It's a useful start for those interested in learning the basics around fasting rules, exemptions, the significance of iftar and suhoor, and common greetings.

Iftar foods from around the world

The global population of Muslims eats and fasts in distinct way around the world. This photo survey spans Morocco's harira soup to Indonesia's kolak (a sweet dessert soup) and Turkey's pide (like pizza but without the tomato sauce). The one universal aspect for most iftar meals is dates and water, following Muhammad's practice. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Tarawih: the special night prayers during Ramadan

Beyond fasting, Ramadan nights have their own distinct ritual: Tarawih, an extended voluntary prayer performed after Isha, the standard final of five daily prayer times. Communities read through the entire Quran over the course of the month alongside these Tarawih prayers.

The Five Pillars of Islam, explained through Islamic art at the Met

Fasting during Ramadan—known as sawm—is one of five foundational practices that define Muslim life. The Met uses art objects to illuminate the pillars to make the theology more tangible. Ramadan's fast is interwoven with this broader framework of prayer, charity, pilgrimage, and expressions of faith.

Ramadan moon-sighting can spark intra-family disputes

Because different communities—and even different members of the same family—follow different methods for confirming the crescent, Ramadan doesn't always start on the same day for everyone. The result: "moon wars" that pit parents against children, and mosques against each other, on when exactly the fast begins.

UK's Royal Astronomers join the hunt for Ramadan's crescent moon

In Britain, Muslim communities and professional astronomers now collaborate to officially spot the moon that begins Ramadan, blending ancient practice with modern science. The partnership culminates in a live, unscripted annual broadcast even.

What to eat for suhoor, the pre-dawn mean that has to last all day

Suhoor—eaten before the Fajr prayer at dawn—is the only fuel a fasting Muslim has until sunset. This practical guide covers the logistics around what foods sustain energy longest, what to avoid, and why hydration strategy matters as much as what you eat.

Ramadan will be celebrated twice in 2030 due to the 33-year lunar cycle

Because the Islamic year is 11 days shorter than the Gregorian calendar, Ramadan migrates through every season over a 33-year cycle. In 2030, it will fall twice in the same Gregorian year.

Ramadan is a major television event in the Middle East

Each year, major networks air special 30-episode dramas timed to the month—one episode per night after iftar. Syrian productions long dominated the format, though that has shifted. The season is the advertising event of the year across the Middle East, rivaling the Super Bowl in commercial intensity.

Eid ul-Fitr vs. Eid ul-Adha: differentiating the two lesser and greater Eids

Most non-Muslims associated Eid with the end of Ramadan—but that's actually the lesser Eid. The greater one, Eid ul-Adha, comes 70 days later and commemorates Ibrahim's (Abraham) willingness to sacrifice his son. It involves Qurbani, the ritual slaughter of an animal, with meat distributed to those in need.

Life during three months of polar night

In Norway's Svalbard archipelago, night reigns from November to January, as with many communities living within the polar regions. Contrary to popular assumptions about such places, many residents of the region describe the long darkness as peaceful, a time to slow down and draw nearer to neighbors and community. Read more on life in polar night, specifically in the Svalbard town of Longyearbyen, in this essay from a resident there.

Lack of sunlight during Arctic winters can fuel a winter slump and a circadian disconnect

Sunlight typically tells our brain to stop producing melatonin, a hormone that makes us sleepy, but in dark Arctic winters humans must adapt to life without much sunlight. Scientists in this video provide tips that include trying to increase the amount of light around you, even if it’s just table lamps.

Aurora-related activities drive significant tourism in regions near the Arctic Circle

As the peak solar cycle approached from late 2024 to early 2026, airlines serving countries such as Iceland, Finland, and Canada increased their scheduled flights, with direct flights to Tromsø, Norway, doubling since 2018. The northern lights tourism market has grown about 10% per year and is expected to increase from $941.9M in 2024 to $1.648B in 2030.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

Iceland, the last mosquito-free country, detected them in 2025

Recently several of the mosquito species Culiseta annulata were documented in Iceland—the last country that had not yet seen them, underscoring that climate change is shifting the bugs' patterns. Mosquitoes can hide out in human structures to survive icy temperatures. The bugs are now known to live everywhere except the continent of Antarctica.

The origins of Iceland's child-eating Yule Cat legend

Iceland is a cold place, and wool production has long been a key means of surviving the climate's severity. For those Icelanders who failed to get new Christmas clothing before the holiday, their lurked a vicious, hungry cat to consume them. The centuries-old folklore is a fascinating story of social control through the tales we tell. For a dose of Christmas fear, read this wild article.

Visualize your city’s annual daylight map

Type in your town or region and see sunrise and sunset for each day of the year. A separate view shows the number of hours of day versus night for each day. Search a city far north like Oslo, Norway, and compare its graphs to one near the equator (like Singapore).

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Can fasting help you live longer?

Animal studies into the health benefits of calorie restrictions of 20%-40% suggest it extends life spans and reduces incidents of age-related diseases, including cancer. This article explores the research into fasting, calorie restriction, and longevity.

Early European observance varied between penitential and celebratory seasons

For centuries, churches disagreed over the purpose of Advent: Gaul and Spain treated it as a long, penitential fast beginning on November 11, while Rome observed a shorter, more joyful season. These competing traditions were only blended into a unified Advent in the Middle Ages.

The world's quirkiest time zones

In contrast to telling time by physical signs like the sun or stars, cultural time relies on political agreement and standards. The convention of time zones arose due to transportation and communication advancements, and while many work just fine, some are pretty wild. Chief among those is the time zone of the uninhabited Baker and Howland Islands in the central Pacific, which results in a technical 26-hour day.

Sweden's coffee breaks are protected by law, and thought to increase worker happiness

Coffee breaks in Sweden, called "fika," are an important social ritual. Introduced in workplaces in the 1900s, many Swedish firms today have mandatory fika breaks. The relaxation is thought to also boost joy and productivity for employees, while also reducing stress levels.

Manhattan's tiny wire allowing orthodox Jews to carry things on the Sabbath

An 18-mile wire known as an "eruv" encircles most of Manhattan, allowing observant Jews to carry things within its boundaries. This wire is one of many Sabbath workarounds rooted in the ancient rules for resting on the Sabbath day. Every week, a worker inspects the eruv line, and its maintenance costs $100K a year.

Once a year, Bali goes completely silent

Every March, the Indonesian island of Bali halts all commerce, travel, and recreation for a day of silence called Nyepi. This cultural ritual purges the island of evil spirits like ego and greed.

Heat-related complications are of greater concern for distance runners than cardiac threats

Analysis of more than 130,000 runners in Tel Aviv events during a seven-year period indicated that the runners were 10 times more likely to experience heatstroke than serious cardiac problems. Scientists suggest that runners should take 10 to 14 days to acclimate to a hot climate before tackling a serious run.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

One of the most famous portraits ever taken is 'Afghan Girl' (1984) by Steve McCurry, yet the subject Sharbat Gula went much of her life without being identified or benefitting from the image's success.

See images of medical cases of firework injuries shared on this 'Instagram for doctors.' (Warning: Graphic content)

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.