As Indonesians begin exodus home, officials face vexing issue of Eid festival date

Name: Indonesia gears up for holy month of Ramadan amid devastating inflation
Uploaded: 2023-04-19T12:00:35.000Z
Duration: 2 min 18 s
Description: Indonesia gears up for holy month of Ramadan amid devastating inflation

In the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, the day of Eid is usually decided by the Ministry of Religion

But various Muslim groups in Indonesia are free to do their own calculations, meaning that people across the country will celebrate Eid on different days this year

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Muslims perform night prayers on a street during the holy month of Ramadan in Bogor in Indonesia’s West Java province. Photo: AFP

Resty Woro Yuniar

Published: 8:00pm, 19 Apr 2023

Islam’s biggest holiday Eid al-Fitr is typically celebrated on different dates each year in Indonesia, but the potential disparity is causing a headache this year for officials trying to decide how to accommodate the various interpretations of the Eid prayer by Muslim groups later this week.

In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, the day of Eid is usually decided by the Ministry of Religion. On Thursday, it will do an astronomical calculation and observe the sighting of the new moon to determine the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the start of the Shawwal month in the Islamic calendar. Eid falls on the first day of Shawwal.

However, various Muslim groups in the country are free to do their own calculations, which means that some groups this year will celebrate Eid on Friday, and the rest on Saturday.

Muhammadiyah, the country’s second-biggest moderate Muslim group with 60 million members, has decided that Eid will fall on Friday, while Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Muslim group with 95 million members, is yet to decide as it plans a confirmation meeting on Thursday.

Indonesia’s Muslim diversity came under the spotlight recently when local officials in West Java and Central Java provinces refused to issue permits for Muhammadiyah to use public fields for mass Eid prayers on Friday, citing the uncertainty of the Eid date.

The group tried to book Mataram Square in the city of Pekalongan in Central Java for Eid prayers, but the city’s mayor refused the request as he awaited the government’s calculation on Eid.

In Sukabumi, a city in West Java, the mayor also cited the same reason for his refusal to issue a permit to use Merdeka Square, adding that the field will be used by the local government to hold its own mass Eid prayers.

02:18

Indonesia gears up for holy month of Ramadan amid devastating inflation