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Sacredness of Muharram
One of the special months of the Islamic lunar calendar is the month of Muharram. It is the first month in the Islamic calendar, and there are various hadiths and a verse from the Quran associated with it that highlights its sacredness.

Muharram is one of the months that has found its implicit mention in Quran as well. Pertaining to the sacred months, Allah Almighty says in Quran: “The number of months in the sight of Allah is twelve (in a year) – so ordained by Him the day He created the heavens and the earth; of them four are sacred; that is the straight usage. So wrong not yourselves therein and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together. But know that Allah is with those who restrain themselves.” [Quran 9:36]

The blessing of Muharram in light of this ayat means that ordinary good deeds committed in this month will reap greater rewards, compared to doing those same deeds in other months. Allah (SWT) clearly states that Muslims should not wrong themselves in these sacred months. Therefore, in no way should a Muslim consider leaving a small good deed in this month, neither must he or she consider undertaking any minor sin as the rewards and punishments are probably to increase exponentially too.  

Fasting in Muharram
"The most virtuous fasting after the month of Ramadan is fasting in Allah's month of Muharram." [Muslim]

The phrase "Allah's month", connecting the name of the month to the name of Allah in a genitive grammatical structure, signifies the importance of the month. Al-Qari said: "The apparent meaning is all of the month of Muharram." But it was proven that the Prophet (PBUH) never fasted any whole month apart from Ramadan, so this hadith is probably meant to encourage increasing one's fasting during Muharram, without meaning that one should fast for the entire month.

It was reported that the Prophet (PBUH) used to fast more in Sha'ban. It is likely that the virtue of Muharram was not revealed to him until the end of his life, before he was able to fast during this month. [Sharh an-Nawawi 'ala Sahih Muslim]

Day of Ashura (10th Muharram)
Ibn Abbas (RA) said: “The Prophet (PBUH) came to Madinah and saw the Jews fasting on the day of Ashura. He said, ‘What is this?’ They said, ‘This is a righteous day, it is the day when Allah saved the Children of Israel from their enemies, so Musa fasted on this day.’ He said, ‘We have more right to Musa than you,’ so He fasted on that day and commanded (the Muslims) to fast on that day.” [Bukhari]

The day of Ashura was celebrated prior to the advent of Islam. It refers to the day when the Children of Israel were led to liberation by Prophet Moses (AS) against the tyranny of the Pharaoh. Therefore, the day had been sacred since then to the time of Islam.

With the arrival of Islam, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) also acknowledged the sacredness of this day and fasted on this month and encouraged the followers to also fast on this day. Ibn Abbas (RA) said: “I never saw the Messenger of Allah so keen to fast any day and give it priority over any other time than the day of Ashura and the month of Ramadan.” [Bukhari]

The meaning of his being keen was that he intended to fast on that day in the hope of earning the reward for doing so. The Prophet (PBUH) said: "This fast is a compensation for the (minor) sins of the past year.” [Muslim]

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Sources: sunnahonline