Quest-Master
November 3rd, 2005, 11:20 PM
I believe most of the West is celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr (Eid Mubarak basically translates to "Congratulations, today is Eid!" in Arabic and other numerous languages) today, while places in New England are doing it tomorrow, and even other countries in Asia on Saturday, so it may be a bit early for some, but.. uh, Eid Mubarak to all of UbuntuForum's Muslims. :D
The reason different places do not celebrate this on the same day is because the Islamic calender is based on the lunar year which relies on math and sighting of the moon which depends on where it is being seen. The sight part is there because any month in the lunar year can have 29 or 30 days, so there's no real definition to it.
Anyways. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_ul_Fitr, if you want to know more about it. This is basically our equivalent to Christmas/Hanukkah or whatever, though we still have Bakr-Eid to go as well which will probably be January next year!
The reason different places do not celebrate this on the same day is because the Islamic calender is based on the lunar year which relies on math and sighting of the moon which depends on where it is being seen. The sight part is there because any month in the lunar year can have 29 or 30 days, so there's no real definition to it.
Anyways. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_ul_Fitr, if you want to know more about it. This is basically our equivalent to Christmas/Hanukkah or whatever, though we still have Bakr-Eid to go as well which will probably be January next year!