Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

IAC: Some Islamic Countries Made Mistake to Celebrate Eid on Saturday


Sat 23 May 2020 | 03:55 PM
Ahmed Moamar

The International Astronomy Center (IAC) released a statement said that it might have been a mistake to see the new moon of the Hjra month of Shawwal yesterday evening.

Some Islamic countries, especially in West and East Africa, announced that today, Saturday, is the first day of Eid Al-Fitr.

The IAC also revealed in a tweet posted to its page on the social networking site "Twitter", that several countries such as Mauritania, Somalia, Senegal and Mali may have actually seen the planet Mercury and it was thought wrongly as the Shawwal crescent.

The statement issued by the IAC added that the two planets of Venus and Mercury were located very closely and strikingly over the western horizon where the sun sets.

Images taken from space showed the two planets were approximately in converging position. This may be the reason for that mistake misled those Islamic countries to declare the Eid today.

Another tweet of the IAC said that a picture showing the location of the moon under the horizon at the moment of sunset, on Friday. The location of Mercury and Venus converging over the that horizon, as shown over West Africa.

A number of African countries, including an Arab country, announced that they were able to see the Shawwal crescent on Friday evening. They celebrated Eid Al-Fitr today, Saturday, in contrast to the announcement by most Islamic countries that Sunday will be Eid, such as Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Qatar and Egypt.

There are inquiries about some African countries that announced seeing the crescent on Friday evening, despite the setting of the moon before the sun in all countries of the Islamic world.