AP PHOTOS: Muslims around the world observe holy month of Ramadan with prayer and fasting

Students perform a prayer during the first day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan at Ar-Raudlatul Hasanah Islamic Boarding School in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Tuesday, March 12, 2024 (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

Muslims around the world are observing the holy month of Ramadan, with worship, charity, dawn-to-dusk fasting and nightly feasts.

Muslims gather for prayers inside mosques in Indonesia, Kashmir, Pakistan and Turkey. They gather outside at New York’s Times Square and in the Gaza Strip.

Messages recognizing Ramadan light the sky in Turkey and Germany.

Volunteers distribute food to people breaking their fast in Pakistan. In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Muslims eat a sunset meal at a mosque.

A Muslim worshipper reads the Quran, Islam’s holiest book, during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan at Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

In Rafah in southern Gaza, Palestinians buy food for a pre-dawn meal. Ramadan this year comes as the Middle East remains inflamed by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and many in the enclave are going hungry. Even where food is available, there is little beyond canned goods, and prices are high.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and begins with the sighting of the crescent moon.

For many of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims, fasting began Monday, after an announcement from officials in Saudi Arabia, which is home to the holiest places in Islam.

Muslim communities may start Ramadan on different days, due to declarations by multiple Islamic authorities around the globe on whether the crescent has been sighted or different methodologies used to determine the start of the month.

Indonesian Muslims attend an evening prayer called ‘tarawih’ to mark the first eve of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, at Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, March 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

A Nepalese Muslim recites Quran at the Jame Mosque on the first day of holy month of Ramadan in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Lights message installed in between the minarets of the Suleymaniye mosque reads in Turkish “Ramadan is the month of Quran” ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, March 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Muslim worshippers perform “tarawih,” an extra lengthy prayer held during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, March 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Muslims eat during Iftar, the sunset meal when Muslims break their fast in the holy month of Ramadan at a mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Palestinians buy food for a pre-dawn meal before fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, March 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

A “Happy Ramadan” sign is illuminated on the occasion of the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, when observant Muslims fast from dawn to dusk, in a pedestrian zone in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, March 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Volunteer arrange food plates to be distributed among people for breaking their fast during the Muslim’s holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Lahore, Pakistan, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

Volunteers distribute food among people for breaking their fast during the Muslim’s holy fasting month of Ramadan, at a free meal distribution point, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Muslims offer prayer inside a Mosque on the first day of Ramadan, in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when the faithful fast from dawn to dusk, began at sunrise Tuesday in much of Asia. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Myanmar Muslim men join evening prayer before their fast-breaking during the first day of Muslim’s holy fasting month of Ramadan at Nwe Aye Mosque in Yangon, Myanmar, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Members of the Muslim community gather for the Taraweeh prayer during a month of Ramadan at New York’s Times Square, Sunday, March 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Indonesian Muslims attend an evening prayer called ‘tarawih’ marking the first eve of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, at Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, March 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Indonesian Muslims attend an evening prayer called ‘tarawih’ marking the first eve of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, at Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, March 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

A Palestinian boy plays with fireworks as he celebrates the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan next to a destroyed residential building by the Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, March 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)