The Islamic calendar has 12 months with 29 or 30 days. Months in the Islamic Calendar Month Names Because the time of the moonset at a location depends on its longitude, a new month and key religious rituals like the Ramadan fast may begin a day earlier in, for example, West African Muslim countries than in Indonesia or Malaysia. Some countries and Muslim communities now use modified versions of the traditional calendar that are designed to make the timing of Islamic months and observances easier to predict.Ī new month may also begin on different days in different countries. This is why the dates for Muslim holidays may change at short notice. When this happens, the month may be extended by a day, delaying both the beginning of the new month and the events associated with it. Clouds and other adverse atmospheric conditions can obscure an otherwise visible Crescent Moon. This dependence on astronomical observations makes it difficult to predict the length of Islamic months. The traditional version of the Islamic calendar requires an authorized person or committee to make an actual sighting of the Crescent Moon to determine the length of each month. How accurate are different calendar systems? Difficult to Predict An Islamic year consistently falls about 11 days short of the solar year.įor that reason, the Islamic calendar cannot be used for agriculture or other activities traditionally linked to the seasons, and most Muslim countries officially use the Gregorian calendar as their civil calendar alongside the Hijri system. Unlike other calendar systems that use leap days or leap months to synchronize the calendar with the solar year, the Islamic calendar is completely detached from astronomical seasons, which are marked by the equinoxes and solstices. The Waxing Crescent Moon is the Moon phase which starts right after a New Moon. A new month can only begin after a Waxing Crescent Moon is observed shortly after sunset. The timing of the months in the Islamic calendar is based on astronomical observation. This Moon cycle encompasses all the phases of the Moon. Each month lasts for a full lunation, which is the time span from one New Moon to the next. The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar whose time reckoning is tied to the Moon phases. The Hijri calendar is not to be confused with the Solar Hijri calendar used in Iran and Afghanistan. Business Date to Date (exclude holidays)Ī New Moon - and Islamic month - is born.The first day of the next month, Shawwal, will then be on Saturday, April 22, and will see the start of the Eid ul Fitr festivities. The information all points to the moon not being seen on Thursday, meaning Ramadan and its daily fasting will continue for one more day.Īs Islamic days run from sunset to sunset, Ramadan is therefore expected to technically come to an end on Friday evening. What does this mean for Eid ul Fitr 2023? Timings elsewhere in the UK will be similar. Sunset 8.09pm, moonset 11.32pm (local times) Saturday, April 22 - moon is easily visible with the naked eye. Sunset 8.07pm, moonset 10.11pm (local times) Sunset 8.24pm, moonset 11.55pm (local times) London, UKįriday, April 21 - moon is easily visible with the naked eye. Sunset 8.22pm, moonset 10.31pm (local times) Sunset 7.04pm, moonset 9.50pm (local times) Liverpool, UKįriday, April 21 - moon is easily visible with the naked eye. Sunset 7.03pm, moonset 8.44pm (local times) Sunset 6.43pm, moonset 9.05pm (local times) Rabat, Moroccoįriday, April 21 - moon is easily visible with the naked eye. Sunset 6.42pm, moonset 8.05pm (local times) Mecca is two hours ahead of UK time (BST).įriday, April 21 - moon is easily visible with the naked eye. They have looked at the visibility for the crescent in the UK as well as in Morocco and Saudi Arabia, to predict the exact date of Eid ul Fitr this year. READ MORE: 'Giving gets me through Ramadan': life at the coffee shop at the heart of its communityīritish astronomers who work for HM Nautical Almanac Office, a Government agency providing data for police, armed forces, diary manufacturers and others, have forecast the likelihood of seeing the moon. Scholars will be looking for the moon on the 29th day of the month, which is Thursday for those who started Ramadan on March 23, and Friday for those in India and Bangladesh who started Ramadan a day later on March 24, Birmingham Live reports. At present, Eid is expected to fall on either April 21 or 22 in the UK. In the Islamic calendar, the sighting of the new crescent moon marks the start of the month. Eid ul Fitr 2023 is set to arrive this week, with the moon playing a big part in the Islamic festival.
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