Why Idd-Ul-Fitr 2019 will be on June 5
By MUNGAI KIHANYA
The Sunday Nation
Nairobi,
17 June 2018
Unfortunately, the Minister in charge of
Interior
Affairs
did not heed the advice I gave two weeks ago regarding the gazetting of
the date of the Idd-Ul_Fitr public holiday. He waited until Tuesday the
12th of June to announce that it would be on
Friday 15th. This is exactly the
date that I hade predicted!
Now, do
you want to know the date for next year’s Idd-Ul-Fitr? This is how do to
work it out…
We start by noting that the Ismalic Calendar has 12
lunar months; so, we multiply the time period of the lunar cycle by 12.
That is, 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.8769 seconds multiplied by
12.
The answer is 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes and 34.
5228s.The next step is to add this result to the exact moment that the
crescent moon appeared
marking
the end of Ramadhan this year.
According to astronomical observations, this year,
the crescent first appeared at about 7am on the Thursday 14th
June. But the sun was also out at that moment so it wasn’t possible to
see the moon with the naked eye. The best visibility occurred on Friday
evening.
Now counting 354 days from 7am on June 14 2018 takes
us to 7am on June 3 2019. Adding 8h:48m to 7am takes us to 3:48pm
So, the crescent moon to mark the end of Ramadhan in
2019 will first appear at 3:48pm on June 3. But, again, the sun will be
out so the moon won’t be visible to the naked eye.
The crescent will become visible the following day –
June 4 – between 7:15pm and 7:30pm. Therefore, Idd-Ul-Fitr 2019 will be
on Wednesday June 5. Mark that date on your calendar!
I want to repeat the suggestion that I have been
making about this matter: the Public Holidays Act needs to be amended to
state that the gazetting of any public holiday should be done at least
90 days in advance.
In the current
arrangement, we are allowing the government of
the day to play politics with these holidays. In 2007 (an election year)
the government suddenly declared that Idd-Ul-Adha would be a national
public holiday.
For the following nine years
(2008 to 2016), this important day on the
Islamic calendar was not a national public holiday. Then in 2017
(another election year) it was gazetted again! This blatant pollical
manoeuvrers are not healthy and must be stopped!
My final word on this matter is to the Chief Justice.
Normally, when an impromptu public holiday is announced, courts move cases that had been
scheduled on that date to the end of the queue.
In many instances,
this postpones the cases by up to three months or longer. I have been a
victim of such postponement. My suggestion is that all cases should be
pushed to the next working day.
That is, those
scheduled on Friday, June 15 move to Monday the 18th; those
of Monday go to Tuesday, and so on. I hope the Chief Justice will take
my advice.
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