May 10 set as Moslem's Sacrifice Day
May 10 set as Moslem's Sacrifice Day
JAKARTA (JP): The government announced yesterday that Moslems in Indonesia will celebrate the Day of Sacrifice on Wednesday, May 10, as will co-religionists in the Holy Land in Saudi Arabia.
The celebration will be on the same date because of a change, announced yesterday by the Saudi Arabian government, in the time fixed for the observance of a haj pilgrimage rite.
Initially, the rite of stopping in the Arafah Plain was to be held on Monday, May 8, which would have meant that the Moslems who are now on the haj pilgrimage would have made their offering of livestock on May 9.
However, certain astronomical calculations and observations conducted on Monday resulted in the decision that the Islamic month of Dzulqaidah would last for 30 days, so that the sacrifice day, which falls on the tenth day of the Islamic month of Dzulhijjah, will coincide with May 10.
This change means that the rite of wukuf in the plain will have to be performed on Tuesday.
On the Day of Sacrifice, Moslems all over the world sacrifice livestock in a rite imitating the Prophet Abraham's preparations to sacrifice his son Ismail.
The Antara news agency reported that most of the Indonesian pilgrims now in the Holy Land, together with the trip's organizers, had expected the wukuf to be performed on Monday, and had prepared for all related activities accordingly.
With the announcement, the trip organizers have now been forced to make some new arrangements, the agency reported.
An official of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Soufjan Daud, said the date change would not cause too much trouble for the official trip organizers.
The only people who will be affected by the change are pilgrims who have already had to postpone some activities because of illness. "The rest of the activities will go ahead as planned," Daud said.
The problem of differing dates for Islamic holy days is long standing, and has often been a source of conflict between Moslems. In Indonesia, many Moslem communities have, at one time or another, had to celebrate the Idul Fitri holiday on a different day from other communities.
Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher took up his post in 1993 vowing that he would launch rigorous campaign to ensure that Moslems here celebrated, on the same days, both the onset of the Ramadhan fasting month and the Idul Fitri celebration.
This year he was successful because all of the major Moslem organizations agreed to have Idul Fitri at the same time.
Antara reported yesterday that another change in the pilgrimage rites concerned the annual cleaning of the Holy Shrine of Kaaba in Mecca and the replacement of the kiswah, the shrine's covering.
The first rite is usually carried out on the first day of Dzulhijjah, which coincides with May 1, but this year it was performed on Dzulqaidah 30, which fell on Sunday.
The replacement of the shrine's covering will be carried out on Tuesday, May 9, when the pilgrims are in the Arafah Plain.
On Monday, local time, the team of Indonesian pilgrimage organizers held a mass prayer in the camps, another rite usually performed a week prior to the stopping in the plain.
Led by senior ulemas Husen Affandi and Hamid Alawy Alqof, the pilgrims recited Koranic verses and prayed for the safety of all pilgrims.
By Monday, a total of 54 Indonesian pilgrims have died from various causes, including five through traffic accidents, during this year's pilgrimage. (swe)