The UAE's moon-sighting committee will look to the skies to decide the start date of Eid Al Fitr on Tuesday evening.
They will meet after maghrib prayers to attempt to sight the new crescent moon which would herald the start of the month of Shawwal, which has the Eid festival at its beginning.
If the new moon is visible, the holiday will begin on Wednesday.
If not, it will start the following day.
Astronomers previously forecast that Ramadan will likely consist of 30 days in the UAE, therefore Eid Al Fitr is expected to fall on Thursday.
The length of the lunar calendar is 29 days, plus some additional hours, which means the month can last 29 or 30 days, depending on the orbit
“The moon does not circulate or orbit the Earth at the same time every month, sometimes the orbit is longer and sometimes shorter. There is usually a difference of about six hours each month,” said Dr Hasan Al Hariri, chief executive of the Dubai Astronomy Group.
“The length of the lunar calendar is 29 days, plus some additional hours, which means the month can last 29 or 30 days, depending on the orbit.
“With that element in play, we have to understand that this is how we determine the right position of the crescent to announce a new month.
“Looking at the crescent, it should be high in the sky and bright, not dim.”
Traders hopeful of busy Eid:
Dr Hariri said on Tuesday the moon would set before the sun by 11 minutes, so there will not be a clear sighting of the moon.
Unlike the Gregorian calendar, which is solar, the Islamic calendar is lunar, meaning the date for Ramadan and Eid Al Fitr change each year. Typically, an Islamic month is 29 to 30 days long, but not 31 days.
What is Eid Al Fitr?
Eid Al Fitr marks the end of the month-long fasting period.
Noted as a festive holiday, people across the Arab world and Muslim nations often celebrate the occasion with family and friends, sharing food, gifts and prayers and offering charity to those in need.
It is the first of two Eids of the Islamic calendar, with Eid Al Adha observed later in the year.
This year, with Covid-19 restrictions in place, well-wishers in the UAE have been urged to celebrate at home with immediate family to help stem the spread of infection.
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The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
