#RamadanKareem: people are tweeting about Ramadan a lot more this year, here's what they're talking about ...

Twitter recorded more than 17 million topical tweets in the four weeks leading up to the holy month

Twitter has recorded a 70 per cent increase in tweets about Ramadan in 2020. Alamy

In the month leading up to Ramadan this year, Twitter recorded 17 million tweets about the holy month, a 70 per cent increase in the conversation since last year.

People came together on the social media site to discuss much about the month – from faith to food and entertainment.

The countries generating the most Twitter conversation about Ramadan are Saudi Arabia and Egypt, followed by Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and then Oman.

Using Twitter during the holy month 

Twitter has also released an interesting insight into the way people are conversing about Ramadan in their tweets.

The most popular Ramadan-related hashtags globally are رمضان# (Ramadan), #oruç (the Turkish for fast) and #ramadan.

While the symbol featuring the words "peace be upon him" (ﷺ) was tweeted almost 4 million times in countries across the world, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United States of America and Egypt.

Ramadan emojis 

Naturally, people have also been using emojis to express their faith online, with the most popular being a crescent moon 🌙, praying hands 🙏 and palms held up together 🤲.

Twitter has also introduced three emojis that are automatically generated when particular Ramadan-related hashtags are used in English, Arabic, Malay, Thai, Indonesian, Hindi and Spanish.

The following Arabic and English hashtags will unlock a crescent moon:

• رمضان#
• رمضان_كريم#
• رمضان_مبارك#
• #Ramadan
• #RamadanKareem
• #RamadanMubarak

The second emoji, a lantern, will be unlocked with the below hashtags:

• #فانوس
• #فانوس_رمضان
• #فوانيس_رمضان
• #فوانيس
• #RamadanLanterns
• #RamadanLantern

And the following hashtags will unlock a bowl of dates and glass of laban:

• #افطار_رمضان
• #افطار
• #إفطاراً_شهياً
• #إفطار_رمضان
• #إفطار
• #فطور_رمضان
• #فطور
• #سحور
• #سحور_رمضان
• #IftarRamadan
• #Iftar
• #Suhur
• #SuhurRamadan
• #Suhoor
• #Sahur
• #Suhour

What have people tweeted about? 

According to Twitter, Egyptian preacher Mustafa Hosny (@mustafahosny) was the most mentioned public figure in Arabic language conversations.

Meanwhile in entertainment, Algerian actress and singer, Amel Bouchoucha (@amelbouchoucha) was the most mentioned personality. She stars in new Ramadan TV series Al Nahaat (The Sculptor).

Food has also been a popular topic.

In Arabic, the most popular dishes to have been mentioned are حلا (dessert), معجنات (pastries), سلطات (salads),  شوربات (soups), صواني (trays/platters) and موالح (mixed nuts).