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Why Muslim Festivals Don't Have a Fixed Date in Jan-Dec Calendar
(Explainer for Non-Muslims)
1. As you all know, Muslims are guided by Islamic rules and laws.
2. So Muslim calendar is different. It is based on Islamic tradition
3. Convergence: Muslims also have 12 months
4. Divergence: The 12 months are not January - December, which is Gregorian calendar (read it up, beyond the scope of this explainer)
5. But the 12 months are named Muharram (1st) - Dhul Hijjah (12th). The 9th month is Ramadan, which is the month of fasting, the current month
6. Further divergence: Each of the Jan - Dec month system has either 30 or 31 days, except Feb which has 28 or 29.
7. In the Islamic calendar, a month is either 29 or 30. None has 28 or 31 days.
8. Another divergence: they are not fixed. Muharram can be 29 this yr and 30 next
9. If all of the 12 months have 29 days, as an example, that will mean 348 days in an Islamic year, if 30, it will be 360. This means Islamic year cannot be 365 or 366. The longest possible is 360 and shortest possible, 348.
10. All the 12 months are unlikely to be all 29 or all 30, so let's assume 6 end at 29, and 6 end at 30, that's 354 days in an average Islamic year.
11. Jan-Dec calendar system is 365, so Islamic calendar is on the average 11 days shorter.
12. As the Islamic year is shorter, what that means is, let's assume 1st day of current Islamic year (ie 1st Muharram 1443 AH) is same as 1st Jan 2022, it means the Islamic year 1443 AH will end like 11 days earlier than Jan-Dec year, so another Islamic year, 1444, will start on 21 Dec 2022.
13. Effectively, from my simple analogy
1st Day of Islamic Year 1443 = 1st Jan 2022
1st Day of Islamic Year 1444 = 22 Dec 2022
You know I said the 11 days difference is just average. It could be 10, it could 12, depending on number of months that are 29 vs 30
14. So let's say Muslims have celebration (eid) they do on 1st day of Islamic year (we don't, but using as simple example for analysis purposes), it will fall on a day between 21-23 Dec for this year, circa 10-12 Dec for next year etc, keeps going back by between 10-12 days
15. The above is even though the Islamic date for the eid is fixed: 1st day of the first month of the Islamic year, but the equivalent in the Jan-Dec system is changing every year because Islamic year is shorter by an average of 11 days
16. This is also why we are unable to tell you the exact day for our eid/sallah day in advance in the Jan-Dec calendar, but we can only give estimate: a day in between those 3 days ie last year date equivalent minus 10-12 days this year
17. What determines whether a month will end at 29 or fully reach the maximum 30 depends on if the new crescent is sighted. Today is 29th day of Ramadan (9th month of Islamic calendar, the fasting month), crescent marks the beginning of a new month in Islam.
18. If the new crescent for the next month is sighted tonight, it means Ramadan ended today (note also: in Islam, night comes before the day, so it means we have entered a new month tonight if sighted ie Ramadan month has ended, fasting has ended)
19. If not sighted, it automatically ends tomorrow, the 30th day (remember I said Islamic month is either 29 or 30)
20. The post-Ramadan eid celebration is 1st Day of Shawwal (10th month). This means tomorrow is our eid day if sighted tonight, or Monday if not sighted tonight
21. Summary
- Islamic eid days are actually fixed eg eid ul fitr is always 1st day of Shawwal, the month that follows Ramadan
- It changes on Jan-Dec Calendar because (1) Islamic year is not 365 but shorter (2) you can't predetermine which month will be 29 or 30 unlike Jan-Dec
I hope I have not ended up confusing you further 😊