zlacker

>>asim+(OP)
I was unaware until this year that it was based on when the moon was _sighted_, not just on a conventional lunar calendar. This leads to very short notice public holidays in a couple of countries AIUI.

>>rsynno+Xv1
This leads to issues in e.g. Norilsk where it is polar summer during important Islam dates and you can often not see the moon at all.

>>thrift+UQ1
Isn't the decision coming from the "muslim authority" (sorry I don't know the terms) located in the mecca anyway?

>>h1fra+YS1
There is no Muslim authority or institutions, it's decentralized

>>mkouba+1Y1
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding was that GP is partially correct, in that the lunar sighting is not an individual thing, but done at the communal level by the central authority. It's just that like most religions, Islam has multiple streams, and this there are multiple central authorities.

Is this not how it works? I'm not Muslim, this is what I understood from a Muslim coworker. He also implied that there's some politics involved, in that various Middle Eastern countries align themselves with their political bloc when announcing the day, although any political motivations are "alleged" and not acknowledged.

>>names_+Q12
The choice of which community or authority to follow is also a personal preference. People often express their preferences in a way that aligns them tribally in one sphere or another when given the choice, and the lunar calendar is (humorously) not an exception to that.

There are no central authorities, only a menu of organizations and traditions that one can choose from. In some cases there is social pressure to choose one, and that social pressure is sometimes intense enough so that it feels like there is a central authority.