The intensity of the religious atmosphere of the weekly cycle, which culminates on Friday, finds its match in the yearly cycle which culminates on the Fasting Month (Ulan Puasa or Ramadan). The Fasting Month, being the zenith for the annual pulse of religious life, falls on the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. During the month all Muslims abstain from food, drink, cigarettes and sexual intercourse from dawn until sunset, for the period of 29 or 30 days each year depending on the  moon's position. Exempted from fasting are women in menstruation or with (child-birth) bleeding, any person on a sick bed or on a journey, men and women who are too old and children under the age of puberty.

In Cirebon, the popular tradition for the beginning of Fasting month is signalled by the sound of peteter, a distinct melodic style in the beating of the bedug in the mosque. Peteter is sounded at 4.00 or 8.00 p.m. at the end of Ruwah (or Sya'ban) the month that precedes the Fasting. Peteter sounds at 4.00 p.m on the 30th day of Ruwah, but when the Ruwah is 29 days (brandangan) the sound of peteter is suspended until 8.00 p.m. after the National Team for visual observation (ru'yat) from the Ministry of Religious Affairs announces its judgement. When peteter is sounded children throughout the village go running eagerly to the mosque to see how the peteter is sounded. In Indonesia, however, the beginning and the ending of the Fasting Month is officially announced by the Minister of Religious Affairs via evening radio and TV broadcasts, followed by a speech about the merit of the Fasting month that urges everyone to do his utmost, to do good and avoid evil.

The daily period of observance starts before the break of the dawn (imsak) and ends immediately after sunset. Currently, there are many calendars which give the exact time of each day and this is also included with daily information from newspapers, radio and TV broadcasts. Prior to fasting, early in the morning before dawn, people anticipate their fast by having an early morning meal (sahur). After sahur they go to the mosque or prayer house for morning prayer. On their return from morning prayer, most youngsters do not immediately go back home; they spend the morning walking to and fro, making the mornings throughout the month exceedingly exciting.

During the day time the situation is not much different from other days, except that most coffee shops, canteens and restaurants are closed. Some, however, are secretly open to cater to those who cannot fast for a variety of reasons, such as those  who are doing hard physical work. Becak drivers and porters are examples among those who usually do not fast. The appearance of weakness and exhaustion is felt by workers at the batik factory, shoe making and cane craft workshops. Around 10.00–11.00 a.m., Marnisah (19 years), a young woman working at a cane workshop, said that she is nervous on the first day of fasting; she suffers from exhaustion around 10.00 a.m. but it soon passes without causing any problem. Other informants talk about the same thing and tell of the great excitement at having a bite to eat at break time. Among the clerical workers exhaustion appears at lunch time, around 12.00 at noon when, after doing noon prayer, they lie weakly on the mat at mushalla (prayer room) of their offices, some are even falling asleep and go back to work at 1.30 p.m.

The time to break the fast at sunset, is signified by the sound of bedug, kentong, and adzan from the prayer houses, radio and TV broadcasts. People take ta'jil (a quick small bite of something to break the fast), usually dates or sweets, but most commonly kolak (foods, usually fruits, cooked with sweetened thick liquid or coconut milk). A full meal is served after sunset prayer.

From the first evening of the fasting month, people swarm to prayer houses (tajug and mosques) for evening prayer and traweh (tarawlh), a set of prayers which are not compulsory but strongly recommended (sunnah muakkad) to be done throughout the fasting month. Included in the notion of traweh is witir (witr), another recommended prayer done at night with an uneven number, mostly three, of units (raka'at). At Ramadan, witr is performed following traweh. People who go to traweh therefore, are usually involved in the observance of three consecutive prayers: the prescribed evening prayer (‘Isya) performed in four raka'at; the traweh itself which is mostly performed in 20 raka'at (10×2) or, especially among the modernists, eight raka'at (4×2 or 2×4) and witr three raka'at. Traweh (with witir), therefore, may be either 23 or 11 raka'at. The 23 traweh, which is predominant in Cirebon, represent the hallmark of proper practice among the traditionalists, whereas  the 11 traweh represents the practice of the modernists. For those who practice 23 traweh, beginning from the sixteenth day onward, the qunut, an invocation uttered at morning prayer, is also uttered at the last raka'at of witr.

In the practice of traweh the traditionalists and the modernists exhibit their differences quite publicly, although at present, unlike in the last two decades, the differences do not cause any conflict. The traditionalists regard traweh as sunna (recommended, not compulsory) which, according to (their) syari'ah, may be observed in either 8, 20 or 36 raka'at, plus witr. Not doing traweh at all is not counted as a sin, but if someone would like to do it, the more the better. Doing traweh 8 units, plus witr, is essentially good and lawful but it is only a minimum and therefore, implies laziness; doing 20 is better than 8, while doing 36 is the best but too exhausting. Thus, according to their view, 20 is the most reasonable practice (paling maslahat).

The local modernists, in contrast, while agreeing that traweh is sunnah, regard only the 8 raka'at as prescribed by law. Practicing traweh 20 or 36 units is, according to their view, an innovation and therefore, sinful. Even if it is lawful, the work is useless because, unlike their practice which is done slowly and well, the 20 traweh are usually done badly by hurrying every portion recited in the prayer.^[44]

Along with practicing 20 raka'at, the traditionalists have more elaborate procedures. Following each of their two units, the bilal shouts glorification of God and/or praises the prophet Muhammad, to which the others respond in chorus. Moreover, after completing the traweh, the imam leads his congregation to utter the intention (niyat) for their fasting. He utters the niyat, portion by portion in respondable lengths, first in Arabic, followed by the congregation in chorus, and then in Javanese also followed by the others in chorus. The niyat translates as follow: 

They do this to prevent someone in the congregation from missing his niyat, because niyat in any worship, according to them, is very important for the validity of the worship, in this case, fasting. After speaking the niyat in chorus, the traweh congregation breaks up, accompanied by chanting puji-pujian. All these practices are considered to be additional work which, if God will accept them (and they hope He will), can gain merit for them. To the local modernists, however, all these things are nothing but sinful innovations.

The elaborate traweh done in prayer houses, which takes approximately 45 minutes, is still followed by another activity. The next activity is darusan or tadarus where a group of around six people sit around facing each other on mats for nderes (a reading exercise), with their legs folded (sila). Each person has a small bench in the front of him on which the Qur'an is placed. One of the group reads the Qur'an while the others follow him by memory and correct any misread verse or wrong utterance. When reading pauses between consecutive verses the others yell: “Allah”, or “Allah ya rasul Allah.” When a reader feels tired he stops reading and someone else in the group takes a turn; the former reader becomes a corrector. When someone becomes tired after reading and correcting, he may quit the group and another may enter.

Darusan may proceed until late in the evening or until early morning. This depends very much on the number and desire of those attending. When the whole Qur'an is read, a special invocation (do'a) called khataman (completion), is recited and rice mounts (tumpeng) with other dishes are served. The service comes from a volunteering household(s) that wants to serve it. Some snacks (jaburan) are even  served everyday at the mosques for ta'jil, and for supper after darusan. More abundant food is served at maleman, the uneven night of the twentieth (21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th and 29th). On these nights villages are lit up by damar malem (a sort of candlelight especially lit on this occasion).

The frequency of completion of the reading of the Qur'an varies from one group to another; in some, it is targeted, in another it is not. Sometimes, completions are achieved through alternate and concurrent reading. This is what is normally done; yet during the later stages, some groups are eager to make more frequent completions and then, instead of reading the Qur'an alternately in the regular way, they take the 30 divisions (juz) of the Qur'an, then divide them by the number of the group. This results in each member having a certain number of juz to read. This procedure is usually adopted when the fasting month has almost reached its end.

Along with darusan more devout individuals attempt to complete reading the Qur'an individually at home, at least once during the Fasting month. Reading the Qur'an in the Fasting month is considered very meritorious. A visit to the mosque (i'tikaf), even just for a short stop, also has merit, much more so when combined with praying or reading the Qur'an.