FILIPINO Muslims will celebrate Eid’l Fitr, or the feast of breaking the fast throughout the holy month of Ramadan, on Saturday, April 22, 2023.
This, after the crescent moon, which would have signaled the end of Ramadan, was not sighted during moon-sighting activities in the country on Thursday evening, April 20.
“Our group went to Toledo City to conduct the moonsighting, but the moon was not sighted today,” Datu Abubacar Gunang of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos told SunStar Cebu on Thursday.
Gunang said Muslims will continue to fast from dawn until dusk on Friday, April 21, the 30th day of the Ramadan observance.
“This will mean that Eid’l Fitr will be moved to Saturday,” he said.
In Islam, the sighting of the crescent moon signifies the start and the end of Ramadan. It also determines the date of Eid’l Fitr.
“Please don’t be confused if Eid’l Fitr will be today, Friday [April 21] or tomorrow, Saturday [April 22],” read a Facebook post by the Office of the Muslim Affairs and Indigenous Cultural Communities (OMAICC).
“Inshaallah, we will stick and keep our decision last night that our Eid’l Fitr here in Cebu is [on] Saturday, [at the] Plaza Independencia,” the post added.
For his part, Gunang said congregational prayers in wide spaces and family thanksgivings will happen on Saturday to commemorate the end of Ramadan.
“We will have a simultaneous prayer in public places in the morning given that all mosques cannot accommodate the number of Muslims on Saturday,” he said.
Gunang said a number of Muslims will be praying the Eid Salat, or the first prayer, on Eid’l Fitr at the Plaza Independencia in Barangay San Roque, Cebu City.
The three-hour-long gathering will start at 6 a.m.
A communal meal prepared by the OMAICC and the Cebu City Government will be shared with the attendees.
This comes after other countries, particularly in the Middle East, confirmed they had seen the crescent moon on Thursday evening, which for them made Friday, April 21, the day of Eid’l Fitr.
The OMAICC clarified that Filipino Muslims are free to follow whether to break their fast based on the moonsighting in the Philippines or the celebration abroad.
“There is nothing wrong if you decide to break your fast today and there are Masjids here in Cebu that will have Eid’l Fitr today, Friday,” the post said.
Aside from the Philippines, other countries that have announced moving the Eid’l Fitr on Saturday include Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Japan, Cambodia, South Korea, New Zealand, Oman, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Morocco.