Rabat – Muslims in the Netherlands will officially observe the first day of Ramadan 2025 on Saturday, March 1, according to The Association of Imams in the Netherlands.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. During this month, Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, and sexual relations from dawn until sunset.
The month is an opportunity for Muslims to get closer to Allah through increased prayers, reading the Quran, and doing good deeds.
The Netherlands is home to a significant Muslim community, representing around five percent of the country’s population of 17.1 million inhabitants. Islam is the second largest religion in the country after Christianity.
A large part of this community is Moroccan, as the Netherlands is one of the top locations for the North African diaspora. In 2022, there were 419,300 thousand Moroccan nationals residing in the Netherlands, according to Statistica.
For this reason, Ramadan is a time where Moroccan culture truly shines in the European country. Moroccans gather in friends and families’ houses for community iftars, where they break the fast with dates, “harira”, “mssmen”, and other Moroccan delicacies that bring a taste of home.
Not just in the Moroccan communities, but across the Netherlands Muslims gather during this month to strengthen community ties, either by hosting iftars at their homes or attending communal iftars at mosques and cultural centers.
Meanwhile, Muslims go to extra communal prayers, including Taraweeh, held at mosques.
Jihaan, a Muslim student from Indonesia, shared her experience of spending Ramadan in the Netherlands in a student blog.
“One of the highlights of my time in the Netherlands was getting to experience Ramadan here. I was fortunate enough to break the fast with people in my community and even opened up my own home to host a gathering for people to break their fast together,” the university student said.