RIYADH (AFP) — Eid al-Fitr festivities marking the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan will be celebrated from Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Libya and Jordan, officials said.
Religious authorities in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest shrines, said the new moon had been sighted and that Ramadan would end on Monday with the feast to follow the next day. Lebanon and Jordan made similar announcements.
The Islamic calendar is a lunar one, and most Muslim countries set the beginning of Eid al-Fitr by the sighting of the new moon.
But Libya -- where the feast also begins on Tuesday -- uses astronomical calculations.
Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates followed Saudi Arabia, with the feast starting on Tuesday.
In Egypt, however, the feast will start on Wednesday, the mufti, or the country's highest religious authority, announced on state television.
During Ramadan, observant Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex between dawn and sundown each day, after which they break their fast in what is known as iftar.
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