Shawwal is the tenth month of the Islamic (Hijri) calendar, and its first day is Eid al-Fitr, the festival that breaks the fast of Ramadan, one of the two great feasts of the Islamic year, kept with communal prayer, charity given to the poor, and family celebration. Many Muslims then keep six voluntary fasts during Shawwal, held to complete the merit of the month of Ramadan. The name is glossed with the sense of raising or lifting up. The Islamic calendar is purely lunar, its twelve months following the moon and its year of about 354 days drifting against the solar seasons. These are the observances of the Islamic calendar tradition, in which Shawwal opens with the joy of Eid al-Fitr after the discipline of the fasting month.
Shawwal opens with Eid al-Fitr, the Festival of Breaking the Fast, on the first, marking the end of Ramadan's month of obligatory fasting with communal prayer, charity (zakat al-fitr, specifically required before the prayer) and festive gathering. Many Muslims also observe six additional voluntary fast days at some point during Shawwal, a practice attributed to a hadith promising the reward of fasting the whole year to those who complete Ramadan's fast and follow it with six days in Shawwal. Shawwal was also, in pre-Islamic Arabia, considered an inauspicious month for weddings, a folk belief the Prophet's own marriage to Aisha in this month is recorded in hadith as having been cited to dispel.