END OF RAMADAN. The fasting period of Muslims ends with Eid al-Fitr this weekend. If it remains attached to the ancestral method to set the end date of Ramadan 2023, the Parisian institution has adapted to the evolutions of Islam in France…
The start and end dates of Ramadan have often sparked controversy. But for the end of Ramadan 2023 this year, all believers should join together: it is Friday, April 21 that all Muslims in France should choose to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the feast marking the end of the ninth month of the Muslim calendar. The deprivations should therefore end this Thursday evening, with the breaking of the fast. The Paris Mosque, which organizes a Night of Doubt at the end of the day, has already mentioned a “confirmation” of this end date of Ramadan. The observation of the moon, in the presence of several Muslim federations, will only have an official character.
Ramadan can last 29 or 30 days depending on the year and the movements of the moon, the end date of it may have aroused hesitation, misunderstanding, even controversy in the past. Just like the start date of the month of fasting which is governed by the same rules. In 2014, for example, the French Council for Muslim Worship (CFCM) and the Mosque of Paris, committed to observing the sky, declared the start of Ramadan on a different date from several other Muslim organizations. A hundred mosques in the south of France in particular, to the Turkish minority, and the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF), had indeed seceded and announced other dates for Ramadan based on astronomical calculations . The evolution of practices and bodies (the UOIF became “Muslims of France” in 2017, the CFCM was officially abolished by Emmanuel Macron recently) have since erased these differences.
The Mosque of Paris congratulated itself from 2021 on having reconciled the two methods to set the dates of the start and end of Ramadan. In a press release, she pointed out at the time that the “religious commission” set up during the Night of Doubt would now take into account two elements: “The results of work on scientific calculation and universal astronomical data for the determination of the beginning and end of the blessed month of Ramadan” and “the result of the observation of the moon in France and around the world”. “The Muslim federations wish to recall that the combination of these two methods contributes to the unity of Muslims”, it was added. Terms taken up in substance or even to the word for some two years later, for the end of Ramadan 2023.
Eid el-Fitr is sometimes nicknamed “Aid es-Seghir”, or “little festival”, as opposed to Eid el-Kebir, a major festival that punctuates the pilgrimage to Mecca, another high point in the Muslim calendar. Eid al-Fitr is nevertheless an extremely important Muslim holiday. Falling on the first day of the so-called “chawwal” month, following the month of Ramadan, it consists of a day of prayers and family rejoicings. Believers are first invited to come and pray in the morning at the mosque (“Salat al aïd”) and then to pay alms (“Zakat al-Fitr”).
Before this prayer, Muslims will have the right to have breakfast, traditionally made up of dates. The rest of the day is devoted to visiting loved ones and family to offer them wishes for good health and happiness (Eid wishes).
