The Christmasisation of Ramadan and Eid
Ramadan and Eid are being progressively hollowed out, their spiritual content replaced by consumer celebration, their evenings filled with immoral entertainment, their meaning reduced to food, lights, and gifts. This is not a cultural evolution. It is a spiritual loss dressed as festivity.
What Ramadan Is
Ramadan is the month in which the Quran was revealed. It is the month of fasting: the withdrawal from food, drink, and desire from dawn to sunset as an act of worship and remembrance of God. The Prophet ﷺ described it as a month in which the gates of paradise are opened, the gates of hellfire are closed, and the devils are chained.
The point of Ramadan is transformation. Thirty days of intensified worship, Quran recitation, prayer, and restraint: designed to reset the heart, strengthen the relationship with God, and produce a Muslim who emerges with greater taqwa.
The Prophet ﷺ said: "Whoever fasts Ramadan with faith and hoping for reward, his previous sins will be forgiven." (Bukhari and Muslim). The condition is faith and intention, not completion of a cultural ritual.
What Ramadan Is Becoming
Walk through a Muslim neighbourhood in Ramadan. What you will find:
- Elaborate iftar gatherings that rival restaurant openings
- Ramadan TV dramas (broadcast in prime time, after tarawih, watched by families who have just prayed) containing romance, immodesty, violence, and moral frameworks entirely at odds with Islamic values
- Ramadan commercial campaigns: special offers, limited edition products, Ramadan-branded consumer goods
- Ramadan-themed retail campaigns, limited-edition products, and the migration of gift-giving and decorative excess from Christmas marketing playbooks into Muslim homes, distinct from older cultural traditions like the fanous, which marked the month for centuries without commercial substance
Many popular Ramadan serial dramas normalise romantic entanglements between unmarried characters, display inappropriate dress, and treat Islamic obligations as background scenery for modern social drama, even often going against Islamic teachings. Religious and historical Ramadan programming exists, but it is not what fills the slot after tarawih in most homes. Watching these is not a neutral entertainment choice during the holiest month of the year.
A family that prays tarawih together and then sits down to watch a Ramadan drama that normalises what tarawih was designed to resist has not used the night wisely.
What Eid Is
Eid al-Fitr is the celebration of having completed Ramadan, the reward for a month of worship. The Prophet ﷺ described the believer as having two joys: the joy of breaking the fast each day, and the joy of meeting God. Eid is an expression of gratitude, a communal celebration of having done something spiritually significant, a renewal of Islamic community bonds.
Eid al-Adha is the celebration of Ibrahim's ﷺ obedience, the willingness to sacrifice what was most beloved in response to God's command. It is connected to hajj, to sacrifice, to the memory of a foundational act of submission.
What Eid Is Becoming
Eid is becoming Christmas. Gift-giving as the primary expression of celebration. Consumer spending as the measure of the occasion. Social media posts of Eid outfits, Eid food, Eid decorations, the performance of celebration rather than its substance.
The spiritual content: the prayer, the remembrance of what the day commemorates, the sadaqa that should accompany it, the reconnection with family and community as an act of Islamic brotherhood, is increasingly the background to a consumer event.
This is not a small thing. The annual rhythms of Islamic life (Ramadan, Eid, Muharram, Sha'ban) are the calendar of the Muslim soul. When they are hollowed out and refilled with consumer culture, the Muslim soul is being systematically emptied.
What to Do
The individual response: be intentional about how you spend Ramadan. The evening hours after iftar and tarawih are precious: Quran, dhikr, family conversation about the religion, or sleep in preparation for qiyam. Not a TV drama.
Be intentional about Eid. Give sadaqa before the prayer. Pray the Eid prayer. Visit family. Express gratitude. Let the gifts and the food be secondary to what the day actually is.
And be aware of what you recommend to others. If you tell a Muslim friend "watch this Ramadan series, it is excellent" and the series normalises what Ramadan was designed to combat: you have become part of the problem.
Scholar References
- Sahih Bukhari and Muslim: hadith on fasting with faith and hoping for reward
- Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Lata'if al-Ma'arif: on the spiritual purposes of Ramadan
- Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya: on the dangers of entertainment that contradicts worship
- Contemporary scholarly commentary on Ramadan television content