Eid 1443

Well, today we celebrated our Eid-ul-Fithri and was considered a surprise by many Malaysians as they were expecting it to be tomorrow. I already knew from my limited reading that there is always a possibility that Eid will be celebrated today but many considered this with low probability. This variability is because that we follow the rule of sighting of the 'new' crescent moon. According to this report, the new moon sighting was observed in one location (unconfirmed report, it was Labuan) yesterday. Given that Eid tends to be a big celebration and in Malaysia, this includes preparation of meals for families, relatives and visitors, many were caught off-guard yesterday. For us, it was mainly our plans to get back to my other half's hometown that got changed, from the evening on the eve of Eid to the morning of Eid itself. My second son was even working last night and came back from work only this morning. 

I do not follow all the technical details about the new (phase of) moon sighting but there were a lot of discussions online about it; most of which can be ignored but some are pretty interesting (more technical). My only regret is that some people are making a mockery out of this matter. Certainly, there is room for improvement but this is best left to those who are really in the field or who are serious of studying such matters (not the ignorant lot). I remember buying this book by Mohammad Ilyas, thinking that I wanted to learn some the intricate details associated with the Islamic calendar (I remember vaguely the question about the international dateline - see the review of a related book by the same author). I never really got to it. I guess, my question here, is how can we do better? Can we avoid the odd situation of Malaysia celebrating Eid a day earlier than Singapore, given that we are in the same time zone? Note that prior to 1982, East Malaysia had a different time zone from Peninsular Malaysia; would it make any difference assuming that the location of new moon sighting was said to be in Labuan (out of my ignorance). As I said, perhaps best left to the experts in the area (and I'll stick to mine).

Here are some pics and video for today's Eid's celebration.

Prior to Eid, we were worried about our cat Lofa who has difficulty beathing - we were told that there is inflammation of the lungs (see video below). So yesterday, we sent Lofa to a different vet who had more facilities to treat her.

So today, the clinic send this pic of her. Hope she is doing better; will be terribly sad if we lose her.