Today marks the start of a new year according to the Islamic calendar. The Islamic calendar is lunar based, unlike the Gregorian calendar which is solar based, as you probably already know. Like most countries in the world Malaysia uses the Gregorian calendar, but Islamic events are observed according to the Islamic calendar. One of the characteristics of a purely lunar based calendar is that a year is about 10 days shorter than its Gregorian counterpart. This means that even though this year - 1429 - starts in January, 1430 will already start on December 29th. It also means that the Gregorian dates for the two Eid celebrations are not the same every year.
And did you know that every year the people of Malaysia mark New Year 3 times? This year it happens in the space of less than 6 weeks: January 1st, January 10th, and February 7th. The latter will mark the start of the Year of the Rat according to the Chinese calendar.

Idag er det starten på et nyt år i følge den islamiske kalender. Den islamiske kalender er månebaseret i modsætning til den gregorianske som jo bekendt er solbaseret. Som de fleste andre lande i verden bruger Malaysia den gregorianske kalender, men islamiske mærkedage beregnes efter den islamiske kalender. En rent månebaseret kalender adskiller sig fra sin solbaserede kollega ved at være ca. 10 dage kortere. Det betyder at det er islamisk nytår igen allerede den 29.december 2008, og at datoerne for de vigtigste islamiske højtider, nemlig de 2 Eid’er, ikke ligger fast på samme tid af året, som f.eks. julen gør det. Vidste du i øvrigt at man i Malaysia kan holde nytår 3 gange om året? Denne gang endda i løbet af kun 6 uger: d. 1.januar, d. 10.januar og d. 7.februar. Sidstnævnte er datoen for det kinesiske nytår.

Tags: calendar, islam, kalender, Malaysia

Many wishes of a blessed and joyful Eid ul Adha to all who celebrate, but most of all to DH who won’t be celebrating with us. Selamat Hari Raya sayang - we hope Scotland isn’t too cold!

Mange ønsker om en rigtig glædelig Eid ul Adha til alle muslimer.

Tags: familie, family, islam

Snowy is boarding with the vet, and tomorrow we take off on our 450 km drive to Kota Bharu, where we will be celebrating the end of Ramadan with DH’s family.
If you celebrate, please accept my sincerest wishes of a happy and joyous Eid ul Fitr.

Snowy logerer hos dyrlægen, og i morgen kører vi de 450 km til Kota Bharu, hvor vi skal fejre afslutningen på Ramadanen med DHs familie. Hvis du også fejrer, ønskes du hermed en rigtig glædelig Eid ul Fitr.

Tags: familie, family, islam, snowy

Many wishes of a blessed Ramadan to all Muslims around the world!

Tags: islam

Yesterday DH and I attended the Seventh Tun Razak Lecture on “The West and Islam: Rethinking Orientalism and Occidentalism” by Professor Dr. Carl W. Ernst. DH was invited as he is OU alumni and got permission for me to tag along. It was very interesting, especially because some of what he said is stuff I have been thinking myself - except I obviously don’t say it as well as he did. But I have often wondered at the whole Islam versus the West thing. It may sound simple enough, but as a Muslim with Western roots I know that it isn’t. Because what exactly is “the West” and what exactly is Islam? Neither is a uniform and unvarying entity.

I går fik jeg hjernemad til frokost. Var til en forelæsning af Professor Dr. Carl W. Ernst med titlen “The West and Islam: Rethinking Orientalism and Occidentalism”. Den var meget interessant for mig fordi han talte om et emne som jeg selv har tænkt en del over, nemlig den evindelige opstillling af “islam mod vesten”. Det lyder jo enkelt nok - og er det tilsyneladende for mange, men som muslim med vesterlandske rødder er jeg meget bevidst om at det er det ikke. For ingen af de 2 størrelser er jo een stor homogen masse.

Tags: islam