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28 March 2024

Twitter’s new #Ramadan, #Eid icons hit in UAE

Published
By Bindu Rai

Twitter has introduced new icons on its micro blogging site to commemorate the holy month of Ramadan.

Those using hashtags #Ramadan, #Ramazan, #Eid and its Arabic translations will see a crescent moon and an Eid icon in Arabic calligraphy that states ‘Mubarak Eid’ automatically appear in the tweets.

In his Twitter post, Ahmad AbouAmmo, Head of Media Partnerships, Mena, Twitter said: “There are many religious and cultural practices to mark the month, and we are pleased to help people celebrate with new #Ramadan and #Eid icons.

“Use hashtags to tweet how your neighbourhood, city or country is celebrating the month and connect with others across the world who are also observing and celebrating #Ramadan.”

These hashtags come a month after Twitter launched ‘hashflags’ to commemorate the on-going FIFA World Cup for fans to show support for their country with a flag icon.

According to Twitter research, Ramadan has emerged as an important period for social media, with people sending more than 74.2 million tweets about the holy month from around the world last year.

Twitter’s data team put together a visualisation to show how users tweeted about Ramadan in 2013.

It stated that Prayer “is mentioned most often in Ramadan tweets from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt”, while in the US, “long summer days mean that people often tweet about how hungry and thirsty they are during Ramadan”; meanwhile in the UK and Malaysia, “happy” emerged as a key word.

Twitter has also teamed up with regional news channel Al Arabiya to offer a location-specific service that tells you when you can break your fast each day during the holy month.

By tweeting to the organisation with the hashtag #iftar along with the hashtagged name of your city, will get you a reply with the correct iftar time.

This also works for the beginning of the fast, with the hashtag #imsak instead of #iftar.

Twitter users have welcomed the Ramadan and Eid icons, with Ammar AlShukry saying: “Twitter is getting in on celebrating #Ramadan and #Eid with cool icons when you hashtag those two words, very cool!”

Khalid Al Ameri said: “This is pretty awesome. Twitter launches Ramadan 'hashflags'. #Ramadan #Eid”

Raheel Khursheed said: “Twitter Ramzaan Special - New #Ramadan & #Eid icons. Hashtag the words Ramadan and Eid and see the magic.”