✦ zenith calendar · the shia almanac
the days of joy and of mourning in one quiet layer of your sky, each one explained in its own tradition's words.
shia is one of the holiday almanacs that come with zenith calendar. it holds a twelver (ja'fari) shia calendar: the births and martyrdoms of the imams and of the prophet's household, the nights of ramadan and the eids, on the days a published official calendar prints beside each lunar day.
it is that calendar's advance reckoning, copied as published, not worked out on your phone. shia elsewhere follow their own marja's announcement of the moon and may keep a day a day apart. each day begins at sunset the evening before. tap a day and read three short paragraphs: what it is, where it comes from, and how it is kept.
lunar · the hijri months, by a twelver calendar's advance reckoning
13 rajab
the birthday of imam ali ibn abi talib (a), amir al-mu'minin, the commander of the faithful and the first imam. it is a day of joy across the shia world.
families gather, sweets are shared, and the shrines of najaf and elsewhere are lit and full. in iran it is a public holiday and father's day, when children honour their fathers.
15 sha'ban
the birthday of the twelfth imam, muhammad ibn al-hasan al-mahdi (a), the qa'im. the night before is one of the most blessed nights of the year.
the night is spent awake in prayer, with ghusl, du'a kumayl and the ziyarah of imam husayn (a). the day is a festival: streets are lit and decorated, and sweets and drinks are given out.
1 shawwal
the feast at the end of ramadan, a day of thanks. fasting on this day is forbidden.
zakat al-fitra is paid before the eid prayer, after ghusl and in clean clothes; after the prayer people visit family and the graves of the departed, and share food and sweets. the day is confirmed by sighting the new moon, so it may come a day later.
10 muharram
the day imam husayn (a), grandson of the prophet (s), was martyred at karbala with his family and companions. it is the deepest day of mourning in the shia year.
mourners join processions and majalis, beat their chests in grief and hear the story of the day told again. many recite ziyarat ashura, set aside work, and keep from food and drink until late in the day without making it a fast.
zenith calendar draws the year as an orbit round the sun. lit, shia puts its days on their dates on that ring, in mint. its mark is ۞.
each day carries three short paragraphs in its notes: what it is, where it comes from as its own tradition tells it, and how it is kept.
shia arrives locked, so nothing in it changes by accident. the lock guards your hand, not your eye: you can still read it, shine it or eclipse it. one tap unlocks it, and then it is yours to rename, recolour or add to.
tap its chip in the legend to eclipse it (kept, but not drawn) and tap again to bring it back. nothing is deleted either way.
shia shares one sky with your own commitments. like every almanac that comes with the app, it never counts toward the almanacs you can make for free, and it lives on your phone: zenith calendar has no server of its own.
✦ zenith calendar · the sky around it
shia is a single layer. beneath it is a whole calendar drawn as the sky, your year an orbit round the sun, and every part of it answers your touch.
the sun stands at the centre and the year rings round it, with today's earth riding at today's place, its small moon beside it. tap the ring anywhere else and a faint ghost earth waits on that day.
drag along the ring and the days pass under your finger, the big date and the day's list following as you go. lift, and the day you stopped on stays picked.
tap the small moon beside today's earth and you dive into the week. the moon above shows its phase, named underneath; swipe the dates and each week brings its own.
tap the sun and the ring tips on its edge into a ladder of years. in the week, pull the moon firmly down and the month opens, the moon resting half off its foot.
zenith calendar has no server of its own. tap the gear and switch on "nothing comes in" or "nothing leaves this phone"; lift them, and every almanac is back exactly as it was.
shia is waiting in the app, and the rest of the sky comes with it.
shia (muslim communities) ·
The birth of Imam Ali, 13 Rajab, falls on 23 December 2026 in the shia almanac. Shia who follow their own marja's sighting of the moon may keep it a day apart.
Nisf Sha'ban, the birth of Imam al-Mahdi, falls on 24 January 2027, the fifteenth of Sha'ban; the night before is kept awake in prayer.
By this twelver calendar's advance reckoning, Eid al-Fitr falls on 10 March 2027. It is confirmed by sighting the new moon, so it may come a day later.
Ashura is the tenth of Muharram, the day Imam Husayn was martyred at Karbala. In 2026 it fell on 25 June; the calendar is published one year at a time, and the almanac carries each year once it is published.
Zenith Calendar for Android comes with an almanac called shia: a twelver (Ja'fari) calendar drawn on the ring of your year beside your own days, each day with its story. Turning it on costs nothing.
Shia holds a twelver (Ja'fari) calendar, with the births and martyrdoms of the Imams. Sunni holds the Sunni days of the Hijri year by a published calendar. They are separate almanacs, so you light the one you keep.
They are copied from a published official calendar that prints each lunar day beside the Gregorian one, not worked out on your phone. Each day begins at sunset the evening before.