Its’ the Eid today, the end of Ramadan. I think they call it the Sugar Feast in Holland. But I might be wrong.
Even the end of Ramadan is open to debate here in Lebanon. I went out to buy a desk chair yesterday, and found some of the shops closed. Turned out that some muslims had already started their Eid. Apparently Fadlallah’s ( a recently deceased shia theologist) people had announced it a day earlier. Because Hezbollah has distanced themselves for quite a number of years already from Fadlallah, and Amal has distanced itself from Hezbollah , the logical result was that the Amal shia started their feast yesterday, and the Hezbollah shia are off today. I wonder what the shia do who are with neither parties? They can choose. The sunni had no choice; today’s their day. It’s all very confusing. And what’s the deal anyway with having to wait for the religious authority to announce whether it is a new moon or not (the new moon signals the start and the end of Ramadan)? Any astronomical calendar will be able to tell you the day when there is a new moon or not. Here is an example of an astronomical calendar for Beirut.
Which would indicate the Eid actually started yesterday, September 9. Hmmm. Do Fadlallah's people surf the web? I know that many of the Hezbollah cadre are pretty technology savvy, with about half of them having passed through CalTech or MIT.
Luckily I do not have to worry about any of that. I don’t fast. I think I’ll go to the beach today.
2 comments:
Eid is on the first day you *see* the new moon. Sometimes when the new moon is barely illuminated by the sun (wikipedia says under 3% illumination) it is a new moon but cannot be seen from earth.
Fadlallah decided a long time ago to get with the times and use technology instead of camping out all night. Other religious figures want to keep pretending they are relevant and have some power...
In all cases happy day off from work!
I have to admit I recognized your Dutch common sense genes in your post and it gave me a laugh. Of course common sense or logic has nothing to do with religious practices, no matter what the religion.
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