Bonny Boy

[QUOTE=Autonomy;7853211]This shows possible visible on Friday, definitely Saturday

I would agree, Mecca appears to be on the boundary between A/B on 21st - meaning at sunset on the 21st, as the crescent moon becomes visible just above the setting sun.

Regards visibility, it has been windy down here this week, with a lot of sand in the atmosphere - so this further dictates against sighting at sunset on the 21st and makes sunset on 22nd most likely. First 'day' is therefore 23rd.

Luckily, I expect to be in DXB all next week - much more relaxed..

Bonny Boy

[QUOTE=Bonny Boy;7853608] Then again, they may just arbitrarily decide on the 21st (as reported in some papers) as it is theoretically possible to sight the moon at sunset on this day, if not actually possible due to haze on the horizon. First 'day' in this case is 22nd.

Shadya

How bloody ridiculous.

shakh your bootie

Hardly. The twelve hour clock has very ancient origins, and was related to dividing the time between sunrise and sunset into 12 hour intervals - this then giving rise to the invention of sun-dial type clocks.

There is no rational reason to choose either sunrise or sunset as the start point of a day, nor is there any good reason to choose base 12 for counting hours and base 60 for counting minutes and seconds.

hawkhead

Ha - welcome to the UAE! Try planning any weekend/holiday activities when you never know how much time you're going to get off work and when that might be. It's a right pain in the wotsit.

Anyway, whenever the moon actually is or isn't there they'll probably 'see' it on Thursday evening so that one of the holidays falls on the Friday when everyone is off anyway.

Autonomy

I tend to agree - even though from the pics I posted I think it is very very unlikely to be visible.

There is no holiday associated with the start of Ramadan though...

hawkhead

Oh yeah - dur!
I meant they time it so that people get the least time off for Eid. Wasn't it a couple of years ago when Ramadan was called unexpectedly early and even the arse-lick Gulf News reported that astronomers said there was no way the moon could have been sighted then. And when did Eid fall that year...Friday & Saturday so most of us were back to work on the Sunday, or Monday at the latest.

lionheart

But sunset is when night time begins and sunrise is when daylight begins. Why not be logical?

TGFKASE

Come on, ShadyaHeart, you should know by now that the words Middle East and logical NEVER appear in the same sentence.....

Autonomy

since when was any religion ever logical?

ctfc

Actually, it's quite logical, the day ends when the sun sets.

This does have the less obvious consequence that a new day starts at sunset.

Sandboy

the boys preparing to sight the moon tomorrow night

http://www.rathergood.com/moon_song

Autonomy

so... I'm guessing Saturday then?

The Dean

Has anyone actually thought to pop outside and have a look for the new moon themselves tonight?

Autonomy

why would I do that? Science has shown me it is not visible - I was just waiting for some religious hill climbers to tell me 21st century astronomy was wrong. For once they all agreed with reason.

I clapped.