"Loyalty and devotion lead to bravery. Bravery leads to the spirit of self-sacrifice. The spirit of self-sacrifice creates trust in the power of love. "
This post might be too late already but hey, i pondered it's still jiving with this month's major themes in the calender, the last week has been full of hustle and bustle for me cuz of the transition in my shift schedule to be in a "broken timing". It's because RAMADAN has finally arrived.
(photo courtesy of vladstudio)
Eversince i was a kid, the fascination in seeing the moon crescent leaves me in awe and wonder. I didnt know though that this has a significant connection with Ramadan. Although it was taught to me in history classes back in elementary and high school, i never had the full appreciation of its beauty and essence until i knew just recently with the association to the holy month of the Muslim world.
Ramadan's the ninth month in the Islamic Calendar, the holiest time for Muslims worldwide in observance for fasting and the offering of more prayer than usual.
One of the many facts that i recently unraveled as per my conversations with my Muslim friends is the process on how to determine the start of the Ramadan season. It's a must that the naked eye must see the first sighting of the moon crescent, to officially start this holy religious tradition. As per articles of reading via Wikipedia, this sighting of the crescent of the moon rooted from Saudi Arabia.
Fasting is being observed between the time where the sun has signaled its first ray (mostly during dawn) until the sun has finally sets in again (sunset). At these timeframe where sunlight is visible, it's a must to practice fasting - no eating or drinking of any sorts. This holy sacrifice would halt as soon as darkness starts to creep in after the sun sets, and would begin again during dawn time. This will continue for the whole month of the Ramadan and being revered by all Muslims.
It's also noteworthy that the season of Ramadan varies every year just as the moon crescent appears from the naked eye. I gathered a table from Wikipedia presenting the start date and stop date of the season. I was thinking all along that Ramadan would be always in the month of August but i was found wrong upon learning that the lunar calendar goes 11 - 12 days shorter than that of the solar calendar. I reckon that this table verifies the fact that these were approximates:
(photo from Wikepedia)
This year, it happened that the official start of this holy season was August 11th. And as per the table, it would end this September 9.
Greetings to all the populace of Muslims around the world in celebration of Ramadan.
~mAc
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