[ RELIGION ]
STAR-BULLETIN / 1999
Kiran Taj, 4, and dad Prince, of Salt Lake, during prayer services celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan. Island Muslims will gather at Manoa District Park again this year.
Fast of Ramadan
ends Tuesday
for Muslims
Island Muslims will meet for communal prayers and an all-day party Tuesday as they celebrate the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan.
Eid al-Fitr -- feast of fast-breaking -- prayers are set for 8:45 a.m. at Manoa District Park, 2721 Kaaipu Ave. But the date is subject to last-minute change, an ambiguity that Muslims everywhere recognize.
The feast cannot begin until there is an actual sighting of the new moon, explained Mona Darwich, a member of the military Muslim community that meets at Schofield Barracks. Never mind that astronomers know that the moon cycle will begin tomorrow, tradition dating back 1,424 years outweighs technology. The scientists also know that the new moon will set before the sun does tomorrow and cannot be seen here.
So it will be one more day of fasting from food, drink and other sensual pleasures from dawn to sundown. The chance of seeing the crescent moon Monday evening is better. In areas such as the Middle East, Muslim organizations may accept the sighting in an adjacent country as the beginning of a month.
Eid al-Fitr is a movable feast, based on a lunar calendar and changing to an earlier date on the Western calendar each year. It is one of only two holidays in the religion of Islam; the other marks the end of the month of pilgrimage to Mecca.
Muslims hold Ramadan holy as commemorating the time when the Quran was revealed to the prophet Muhammad.
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