Here are a few points to know about Islamic New Year:
1) It is just a measure of time—and a rough one at that. Muslims generally use the lunar calendar to keep track of religious festivals. We have a solar calendar that helps keep track of time more accurately for scientific purposes. Muslims generally don’t wish each other a happy new year, bc time passing is a natural phenomenon.
2) It’s largely a time of mourning. 1400 years ago an Arab monarch put to death the majority of the Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) family in order to silence them for dissenting against their rule—in the first ten days of the new year. Generally that memory, known as the Massacare at Karbala, is not a pleasant memory, though *some* extreme Arab Nationalists do celebrate it since it marked the proto-rise of Arabism.
3) If you’re Sunni you might fast on the tenth day, as a mark of respect for Yom Kippur, the annual 25 hour fast of Judaism that happens on the tenth day of the Jewish spiritual new year (Jews technically observe four New Years every single Jewish calendar year).
4) Sunnis in South Asia and Iran don’t usually fast. Iranian Sunnis because their Shia neighbors are mourning the Massacre at Karbala, and South Asian Sunnis because their understanding of Islam is more syncretic—we often blend Shia folklore & Sunni religious law together. Even today, Sunni poets in Urdu, Punjabi & Sindhi (three major South Asian languages) write songs and poems about Imam Husayn (who was killed at Karbala) & his family, condemning the evil Arab monarch who killed him. Most of India & Pakistan’s Muslims converted to the Faith after Sufi missionaries scoured the subcontinent, and those missionaries believe their respective religious orders were founded by the family of the Prophet (pbuh) who either died or survived the Massacre at Karbala 1400 years ago. Therefore, the connection to Karbala is stronger amongst those of us from that part of the world originally.
5) It is a charged time of political activism & has been for 14 centuries. Every Muslim ruler and government worries when the new year comes about. That’s because the Massacare at Karbala left a legacy of standing up to injustice across the Muslim world during the new year, as a way of accounting for the misdeeds of politics elites. Everyone from the Shah of Iran to the Bhutto political dynasty of Pakistan, and the Nehru family next door in India have had to contend with unrest and protests during the Islamic new year by activists & instigators seeking genuine reform & social justice. Much of the Arab World has previously sought to ban political expression even more heavily during the Islamic New Year—with mixed results.