Muslims in Kasargod district in Kerala celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr on Sunday but residents of the state’s other 13 districts will celebrate the festival on Monday. This is because religious scholars in the Karnakata town of Bhatkal sighted the new moon on Saturday, signalling the end of the Ramzan fast for believers within a 200-nautical-mile radius – an area that includes the northern Kerala district of Kasargod. But clerics in the rest of the state did not expect to view the celestial object until Sunday evening.
Eid-ul-Fitr marks the end of Ramzan, the ninth month of Islamic calendar, in which Holy Quran was revealed. During Ramzan, devotees abstain from food and water from dawn to dusk.
After the new moon was sighted in Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada on Saturday night, Eid was celebrated on Sunday in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada and Udupi districts, in addition to Kasargod in Kerala.
Thousands of devotees offered Eid prayers in mosques and Eidgah prayer grounds. After the prayers, people wearing new clothes exchanged greetings and visited relatives.
Around the world
Al Jazeera Television reported that as many as 20 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Indonesia, are celebrating Eid on Sunday based on the sighting of the moon.
Turkey and some Muslim communities in North America, which follow astronomical calculations, had announced last week that Eid would fall on Sunday.
The discrepancy in Kerala has brought into focus a long-standing debate among some Muslims about whether Eid should be celebrated after the moon is sighted or determined by making astronomical calculations in advance. Championing the change is the Hijra Committee of India, which believes that the traditional practice is the cause of great confusion.
The Committee, which has members from various sections of Muslims who believe in Sunni, Salafi and Jamat-e-Islami ideologies, takes its anme from the Hijri calendar, a lunar system that has 12 months and either 354 or 355 days. On the other hand, the universally accepted Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar with 12 months and 365 or 366 days.
“It is high time religious leaders changed the practice of moon sighting to decide the beginning of the holy month of Ramzan and Eid-ul-Fitr,” Muhammed Mustafa, Kerala State general secretary of Hijra Committee of India, told Scroll.in.
Mustafa said that moon cannot be sighted on the new moon day. “The reason being the new moon can be sighted by naked eyes only if the moon sets at least 48 minutes after the sun sets in the horizon.”
He added: “We have to follow the scientific lunar calendar published by the National Hydrographic Office in Dehradun. Adopting it will help the religious leaders decide dates of Ramazan and Eid-ul-Fitr in advance.”