Malaysians are strange. When it comes to the supermoon or blue moon, we give it a slew of attention.
Not so for the new moon, or hilal as the Muslims name it. Perhaps because the hilal is not exactly visible to the naked eye. Or perhaps the former two are “once-in-a-whilers”.
A supermoon — when a new moon is closest to the Earth — occurs some three or four times out of the 12 or 13 times the crescent reveals itself. This year saw three supermoons — on Jan 20, Feb 19 and March 21. The New Straits Times frontpaged the Feb 19 supermoon. The blue moon, on the other hand, adorns the sky once every 2.7 years. Rarer still is a double blue moon. It happens between three and five times in a century.
Moon watchers assign many names as the orb of light circles the Earth: new moon or crescent, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, waning crescent and dark moon. The names reflect the phases of the moon’s journey.
If you wonder why the lit side of the new moon isn’t visible at all, it is because it is positioned between the Earth and the Sun.
If you think this paper is waxing lyrical about the many moons, it is. There is a good reason for this: we think what is up there in the sky should fascinate us.
Because, like us, the constellations are part of creation. Anyone who has looked at the night sky far from the city lights would surely come away humbled. And in awe.
There is also a selfish reason for us to keep our gaze skywards. There are thousands of asteroids and other near-Earth objects, or NEOs, hurtling towards us. It pays to know when they will come our way.
There is a more important reason for getting cozy with the constellations. As Bruce Dorminey, the author of Distant Wanderers, puts it, the tiny points of light in the sky are portals through which we might find answers to some of life’s toughest questions.
Two of them are: where we came from and where we are headed to. Serious questions, and seriously we must consider them. If Aristotle is right — that all men by nature have a desire to know — then not many of us are looking up at the sky enough.
We are glad 29 committees of the Falak Syari’, or Islamic astronomy, throughout the country did just that yesterday to determine when Aidilfitri, or Eid al-Fitr, should be celebrated.
A set number of representatives travel to specific locations at maghrib to perform the sighting. If the sighting is not successful, astronomic calculations, or hisab, will follow. They have been doing this for a long time now. The basis for such a determination is to be found in the Quran and Sunnah (sayings and teachings of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)). The first Eid al-Fitr was celebrated thus by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Today, three methods prevail in Muslim countries: rukyah, hisab or the rukyah and hisab, as practised in Malaysia. Such is the power of the moon in a Muslim’s life.
Selamat Aidilfitri. Maaf zahir batin.