I have eaten more Ramen noodles in the time I have been here than in all my high school and college years combined!

Yes, the national brand of Ramen noodles is soo good here! And still cheap! I am a big fan.

I guess I am trying to make up for not posting for awhile. Ramen is really not the the topic for today, the real title is: Ramadan Moonwatching, and once again involves my language teacher educating me.

Yesterday in class, I asked her if Ramadan had started yet, it is hard to tell when it starts as you will see below. She was surprised that I wanted to know. I wanted to know for many reasons, the least of them being so I would know what was going on in my own neighborhood, and if I could serve her a drink of water or 7up. She explained that had not started yesterday, but probably was starting tomorrow. "What's this probably?" This very scheduled person thought to myself. She continued to explain, what I did know that the Sunnis and Shi'ites celebrate at different times, but it looks like this year they will be pretty close.

So at the end of the lesson, I asked if our next lesson would be the following day. She told me that it would depend on if Ramadan was annouced that night or not. Because if she was fasting, she would need to get into that schedule, and would not be available for class, and we could meet on Monday, which I understood. So that left me wondering, why does it have to be announced? Why is it so vague, and you have to wait on the others to announce when it starts?

I asked some friends, and then a little online digging and discovered:
There is a debate among the Muslim community on just how to calculate the beginning of the month of Ramadan (or indeed any month, but Ramadan takes on special importance). The traditional method, mentioned in the Qur'an and followed by the Prophet Muhammad, is to look to the sky and visibly sight the slight crescent moon (hilal) that marks the beginning of the month. If one sees the hilal at night, the next day is the first day of Ramadan and thus the first day of fasting. At the end of the month, when the community sights the hilal again, the Festival of Fast-Breaking ('Eid al-Fitr) begins.

Questions and debates have arisen around the following questions:

* What if people in one area sight the moon, but those in another area don't? Is it okay for them to start and end the fast on different days?
* Should we follow the moon-sighting in Saudi Arabia (or any other area of the world), or should we in our local community sight it ourselves?
* What if our location is overcast and cloudy, and the moon is not visible to us?
* Why do we even bother looking for the moon, when we can astronomically calculate when the new moon is born, and thus when the crescent should be visible? That eliminates human error, right?

Over the years, various scholars and communities have answered this question in different ways. The prevailing opinion is that one should commit to a local moon-sighting, i.e. begin and end Ramadan based on the sighting of the moon in your local vicinity. Astronomical calculations can help us predict when the moon should be visible, but Muslims still tend to follow the traditional method of looking at the sky themselves and physically "sighting" the moon. Thus, the exact day of the beginning of Ramadan is not generally known until the night before the fast begins, when the moon is actually sighted and confirmed.

My thought along the way, was that I took McWilliams Earth Science class, and we can know exactly when there is a full moon, but however we can't predict if we will be able to see the moon behind clouds or not. I was very surprised to know that the Muslims may use a local moon or the Saudi Moon to decide.

Oh, and it has been announced here:
The highest Sunni authority, announced that the holy fasting month of Ramadan begins on Saturday.
The start of the ninth and holiest month of the Muslim calendar is traditionally determined by the sighting of the new moon, often dividing rival Islamic countries and sects over the exact date.

Because it follows the lunar cycle, Ramadan comes 11 days earlier every year on the Gregorian calendar, bringing the fasting month this year in the summer.

During Ramadan, Muslims are required to abstain from food, drink and sex from dawn until dusk as life slips into a lower gear during the day. Activity peaks between "iftar," the breaking of the fast at sunset, and "suhur," the last meal of the day before sunrise.

I hope you found this at least half as interesting as I did!