Eid Mubarak everybody

[Cubist]

Today is Eid, the day when Muslims celebrate the day Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son to prove his love of God, but God provided a Ram for the sacrifice instead.

 

[ComedyPilot]

Did this actually happen, or is it make-believe just like christianity?

 

[andytheflyer]

Whether or not it happened it's a very bad day to be a sheep here in Turkey. I'm starting up a new EU funded landfill and today we've been flooded with the bits of sheep that no-one wants to eat. Yuk.

On the way home tonight, through 2 small villages, sheep were being dismembered, and when I parked up outside my flat 2 older ladies were hauling a large tub full of bits of something that probably had very recently (like an hour ago) been a sheep, was was destined for their flat next door and a large family get-together.

Yesterday, there were very well washed and fat sheep tied in the back of pickups, waiting in the traffic, being driven to meet their destiny, somewhere outside town.

Maybe that's why I couldn't get any lamb chops in the local butcher's shop last night. They were all otherwise accounted for.

 

[Arch]

Did this actually happen, or is it make-believe just like christianity?

I think you'll find it goes back further than that, it's make-believe like Judaism...

This explains the large numbers of people at the mosque today, earlier than normal...


Anyway, Happy Eid. Does that mean we've just had Ramadan?

 

[Arch]

Maybe that's why I couldn't get any lamb chops in the local butcher's shop last night. They were all otherwise accounted for.

Mmmmm, lamb....

 

[andytheflyer]

Nope - there are 2 Eids, one at the end of Ramadan (~70 days ago) and this one.

 

[Arch]

Nope - there are 2 Eids, one at the end of Ramadan (~70 days ago) and this one.

Ah, yes, I thought there was more than one...

 

[slowmotion]

I was in Morocco for New Year a couple of years ago, and they were celebrating Eid at the end of December. How many Eids are there? Anyway, it's a bad time to be a sheep. The alleys of Marrakesh were running with blood.

 

[vernon]

I was in Morocco for New Year a couple of years ago, and they were celebrating Eid at the end of December. How many Eids are there? Anyway, it's a bad time to be a sheep. The alleys of Marrakesh were running with blood.

There are two Eids. Both of them are governed by the lunar cycle as they move around accordingly. To complicate matters the date is governed by direct observation of the visibility of the moon and not by lunar tables. Eid is celebrated on more than one day depending upon which branch of Islam one is aligned to and whether or not the associated observer has seen the emerging crescent of the moon.

It's a nightmare to plan for and more than one school has been caught out by planning for Eid a day or two early and closing the school to pupils and having training days so that Eid does not impact upon pupil attendance.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Happy Eid... I'll drink to that! Mmmm Lamb, maybe a nice claret!

 

[Cubist]

I was in Morocco for New Year a couple of years ago, and they were celebrating Eid at the end of December. How many Eids are there? Anyway, it's a bad time to be a sheep. The alleys of Marrakesh were running with blood.

There are only two Eids every year, but you need to remember that the Islamic year is based on 12 lunar months, each month only beginning after the sighting of the new moon, or 30 days if it still hasn't been sighted. Therefore the year can last between 354 and 355 days. The Eid you saw in Morocco was the same Eid as today, which is celebrated 10 or so days earlier every (Gregorian) year.

 

[Yellow Fang]

That's interesting. I thought Issac was the son that Abraham was going to sacrifice, who later went on to become ancestor to all the Jews through his son Jacob. I thought moslems regarded themselves to be descended from Abraham by his other son, Ishmael, whose mother was Sarah's handmaiden.

 

[slowmotion]

There are two Eids. Both of them are governed by the lunar cycle as they move around accordingly. To complicate matters the date is governed by direct observation of the visibility of the moon and not by lunar tables. Eid is celebrated on more than one day depending upon which branch of Islam one is aligned to and whether or not the associated observer has seen the emerging crescent of the moon.

It's a nightmare to plan for and more than one school has been caught out by planning for Eid a day or two early and closing the school to pupils and having training days so that Eid does not impact upon pupil attendance.

Well I never! Thanks.

 

[Arch]

There are only two Eids every year, but you need to remember that the Islamic year is based on 12 lunar months, each month only beginning after the sighting of the new moon, or 30 days if it still hasn't been sighted. Therefore the year can last between 354 and 355 days. The Eid you saw in Morocco was the same Eid as today, which is celebrated 10 or so days earlier every (Gregorian) year.

I seem to remember hearing that this causes some problems with Ramadan, in Northern climes, since in the Middle East day lengths are more or less the same all year round, but in the North, Ramadan will end up eventually in summer, when the instruction to fast from dawn to dusk is much more difficult than in winter...

Now, if you want confusing, there's the calculation of Easter, which manages to meld lunar and Gregorian calendars together like two different colours of plasticine...

 

[Fab Foodie]

Beware the Eids of March... infamy, infamy, they've all got it in for me!