When Is Eid 2026: March 20 Expected, Egypt Holiday Likely Three Days
4: 24 a. m. ET on Thursday — for those asking when is eid 2026, astronomers in Sharjah have projected the first day of Shawwal will fall on March 20, a forecast that shapes official holiday planning across the region.
When Is Eid 2026: Sharjah and Egypt Expect March 20 Holiday
Egypt’s workforce is awaiting formal steps after that projection: the Cabinet will issue a decree shortly before the holiday to specify the number of official days off for government offices, and the Ministry of Labor will determine the private sector schedule. Employees are expecting an official posting on the government website at the end of Ramadan to spell out the exact public- and private-sector arrangements.
Sharjah Astronomical Observatory’s Visibility Forecast
The Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences and Technology, represented by the Sharjah Astronomical Observatory, calculated conditions that make naked-eye sighting improbable locally; the academy forecast that the projected first day of Shawwal will apply to the UAE and most Islamic countries, while some states that rely on direct sighting or telescopic observation may opt to delay to Saturday.
Moon Conjunction Details Cited by Sharjah Academy
The observatory detailed the moon’s surface conjunction over Sharjah at 4. 24 a. m. on Thursday and found no visible new moon on Wednesday, March 18, or 29 Ramadan; the calculations show the crescent will be only 14 hours and six minutes old at sunset, with a 6. 5-degree elongation from the sun and about six degrees above the western horizon, lingering roughly 29 minutes after sunset — conditions the academy says make local naked-eye sighting impossible and even telescopic sighting unlikely.
Still, the academy noted that advanced stacked imaging could capture the crescent faintly in some locations, and that geography will give certain Arab and Muslim nations a better chance of seeing the moon unaided or with telescopes.
Next: the Cabinet’s decree and a Ministry of Labor regulation. The Cabinet will issue a decree shortly before the holiday and the Ministry of Labor will set the private-sector schedule; the official holiday notice is expected to be published on the government website at the end of Ramadan. If the Cabinet’s decree follows the astronomical projection, the published dates will determine the formal days off for government and private employees beginning with the announced start date.
