A personal history of spotting Eid ka chand

My oldest memory of Eid-ul-fitr dates back to the time when I was not more than three feet tall.

Sleeping in an open air verandah with a mosquito net serenading my slumber, I, the four-year-old granddaughter of late Nazir Ahmed Khan, was visiting my paternal, ancestral village Shahdhuali, in Kushinagar district, Uttar Pradesh, to celebrate Eid, hallmarking the end of the holy month of Ramzan.

There was no electricity supply in the village for three days on end, and while the weather gods were kind enough to send wafts of cool breeze, and random spurts of shower, affording some summer respite for the delicate city dweller in me, the rains also allowed for mosquitoes to breed and bite.

The dawn hours were standing on their last leg when a white-whiskered Maulvi came riding on his noisy, clanging bicycle to inform my dad, who was half drowsy with sleep, that "Eid ka Chaand" has not been sighted, that even though Saudi Arabia had observed Eid the day before, the village of Shahdhuali has unanimously, after consulting all sects, decided to not observe Eid that day.

I was all ears. It meant that I would have to wait for the village fair, sevaiya and biryani for a day more. "I hate you, Mr Moon," I seethed in my slumber.

In India, Eid is observed a day after Saudi Arabia. However, there are variations across the breadth of the country, like there were that year too.

There were villages, neighbouring hamlets, which, unlike us, had decided to celebrate Eid the very day, cutting short the span of the month of Ramzan to 29 days instead of 30.

Shahdhuali had decided to breech the popular code as the elusive Mr Moon decided to play truant with local moon-gazers. 

This ambivalence regarding Eid coordinates continues till date, with different cities, villages, and smaller hamlets observing the festival on different days. Such is the ego-play of moon sighting that maulvis have made it a domain of religion rather than astronomy, where the deed should ideally belong.

The ritual of moon-sighting is mentioned nowhere in Quran, and although the holy book does talk about fasting for the whole month of Ramzan, the duration of the month has not been mentioned. 

To clarify this ambiguity, there is a Hadith of Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) that alludes to this mystery.

Hadith Muslim 1080 quotes Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) saying, “The month (of Ramadan) may consist of twenty nine days as well; so when you see the new moon observe fast and when you see (the new moon again) then break It, and if the sky is cloudy for you, then calculate it.”

The Hadith, in essence, points to the fact that one should not insist on keeping fast for 30 days, that a month can be 29 days long as well; and moon-sighting was only indicative of the end or the beginning of a month according to lunar cycles; it in no way implied that if you can’t spot the moon you can’t celebrate Eid.

Lunar cycles have months either 29 days or 30 days long, unlike solar calendar, which generally has months as long as 30 days or 31 days; the exception being February, which can be either 28 or 29 days long.

Also, a lunar calendar dictates that the flow of months will be fluid with respect to seasons, that is, Ramzan will move through different seasons – winter, summer, spring and autumn.

This is to make sure that people living in different parts of the globe experience Ramzan in all seasons, and there is no inequality wherein a certain country always has to fast during summers while some parts of the world fast perennially in winters.

In the solar calendar, months are fixed, where December always means winter and June means summer; and adjustments happen in the form of leap year every four years. In the lunar calendar there are no adjustments, and months move between seasons in a fluid 365 day cycle.

Today, unlike the times of the Prophet (pbuh), with advancements in astronomy, one can precisely calculate moon cycles and need not depend on moon-sighting to declare Eid; sightings being an unreliable means to mark calendar events as they get affected by various factors such as cloud formations and pollution levels, among others.

Hence, the ritual of sighting the "Eid ka Chand" by maulvis and maulanas is a thing archaic (yes, we can let go off one romantic notion at least... let it pass!), and today rightly rests within the ambit of astronomical sciences.  

As the countdown to the day of celebration closes faster, let us hope that ambivalence gives way to wisdom, and this side of the globe unanimously observe Eid on the same day, be it the sixth or the seventh of July, trusting the wisdom of astronomical sciences.

Let’s give maulvi-wisdom a skip this Eid, and henceforth for all Eids. Only then will it be a day truly "mubarak", sighted along a chaand worth swooning over!