Monday morning

[tamaranth]

eclipse1
Originally uploaded by tamaranth.

Last Monday I was lounging in a hammock, 30 yards from thundering surf, watching through sea-mist as the new moon slid in front of the sun: reminded that I am a minuscule life-form on an astronomical body, and that all around me, always, vast objects are dancing and orbiting and rushing through space. Feeling privileged to be an eye, a witness, a creature capable of perceiving this phenomenon. Easy to understand that this is a sacred, a terrible and wonderful thing.

(Does anyone know, by the way, if there's any special significance to an eclipse just before the beginning of Ramadan?)

This Monday, I've been clearing up cat-sick. But it's a lovely sunny morning, the light mellow and almost green, and I'm about to cycle to my yoga class.

Comments

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Well, as you know Captain, Ramadan begins with the first sighting of a crescent moon, so if the last new moon before Ramadan is an eclipse somewhere, then it will necessarily be just before Ramadan, between the 27th and 29th Shabaan and not, say two weeks before. By the same logic, solar eclipses can only occur during Ramadan when it is very nearly over, and lunar eclipses happen in the middle. (I wonder if seeing the disc of the moon in a partial eclipse counts as a very early "crescent sighting"?)

The new moon of the 27th of Ramadan is called Laylat ul-Qadr, the Night of Power, when the Qur'an came down from heaven (ObSF: The Night of Kadar, by Garry Kilworth). The other two holy nights are:

Laylat ul-Bara'ah, the Night of Record, when God registers all the events that will occur in the year to come falls on the full moon of 15th of Shabaan, the month before Ramadan.

Laylat ul-Miraj, the Night of Ascension, commemorating Muhammad's ascent to heaven, falls on the new moon of the 27th of Rajab, the month before Shabaan.

Surfing the web, there seems to be a tradition of reciting Namaz-e-Ayat (http://www.lankarani.com/English/onlinepub/tawdhih-al-masael/namaz28p2.htm) (traditionally a prayer for earthquakes and other fearful natural occurrences on earth or in the sky) at solar and lunar eclipses, but no special mention of what to do if they fall on certain nights. This website of the Council of European Jamaats (http://www.coej.org/) mentions the eclipse, but doesn't say "hey, look, it's just a couple of nights before Ramadan begins!"

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

I wonder if seeing the disc of the moon in a partial eclipse counts as a very early "crescent sighting"?

My thought too, especially as it was the day before Ramadan started ...

Thanks for this!

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

Your bathos is wonderful.