Some lucky astronomy

[mtbc]

It was rather cloudy here for today's partial solar eclipse but, fortunately, the relevant important moon-finding fellow in the Middle East apparently sighted the crescent in time so the new month starts and we get to celebrate Eid al-Fitr tomorrow, also I don't need to call the school on Monday to explain an absence. As summer time (daylight savings) starts this weekend, we were looking at breaking our fast at 7pm tonight but 8pm tomorrow. Now, tomorrow we get to eat instead.

Comments

[darkoshi]

From what our Indian colleague told us, Eid al-Fitr is a national holiday there for everyone. That seemed to me a nice way to show respect for a non-majority religion.

[mtbc]

Ah yes, quite a few of my colleagues are off work - we're spread across from Europe to Asia so we have people in Lebanon, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, etc. all off. It's especially nice for these countries where, say, the Muslims are one of only three large groups to still recognize them well (Singapore's particularly inclusive). For the Filipino Muslims (largely Bangsamoro) employers around Metro Manila won't tend to take much notice but, even then, I was impressed that Maharlika Village (where I stayed) in Taguig City was originally set aside for the Muslim community, also impressed that the national legal system largely recognizes the Islamic court system there at least for civil family matters (e.g., R's divorce from first husband was Islamic, whereas mine here was just secular civil).