Sunday May 24, 2020
An official wearing a protective mask uses a telescope to view the moon on the roof of the Ministry of Religious Affairs building to mark the Eid al-Fitr celebrations(photo credit: AJENG DINAR ULFIANA/REUTERS)
Some African nations celebrated Eid Al-Fitr on Saturday after declaring sightings of the brand new moon marking the top of the month of Ramadan on Friday, regardless of Saudi Arabia having not sighted the moon on Friday and declaring that the Eid would start on Sunday, in keeping with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.The UAE’s Worldwide Astronomy Middle introduced that the moon had set earlier than the solar for all nations within the Muslim world on Friday, that means that it couldn’t have been seen on Friday night time. The middle famous, nevertheless, that Venus and Mercury had converged “very carefully and strikingly” above the western horizon and will have precipitated some nations to imagine that they had been seeing the brand new moon.
Islam works on a lunar calendar with every day starting within the night. New months are declared when the moon’s new crescent is sighted and may final both 29 or 30 days. The three-day Eid Al-Fitr vacation begins firstly of the month of Shawwal which comes after the fasting month of Ramadan.
In response to Al-Araby, sightings of the brand new moon have lengthy been debated among the many international Muslim neighborhood, with controversy sparked by allegedly incorrect declarations regarding Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr up to now by Saudi Arabia.
Whereas Morocco, Somalia, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Senegal and Mali declared that they’d sighted the brand new moon on Friday night, Saudi Arabia didn’t declare a sighting, that means that fasting continued for a 30th day in Saudi Arabia however ended after the 29th day in some African nations, in keeping with Al-Araby. Many Muslims world wide comply with Saudi Arabia’s declarations on figuring out the brand new moons.
Compared, in keeping with the Jewish calendar, which is a 12-month lunar calendar that adjusts periodically with a 13th leap month to line up with the photo voltaic calendar, the month of
Sivan started on Saturday night time. Months within the Jewish calendar, much like the Muslim calendar, final both 29 or 30 days and had been declared by an precise statement of the brand new crescent of the moon in Jerusalem till the rabbis calculated a set calendar based mostly on various astronomical calculations, ending using the empirical methodology of declaring new months.