Following an official sighting of the new crescent moon Friday, Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, will start the holy month of Ramadan Saturday.
"Tomorrow, Saturday, is the first of the blessed month of Ramadan for the year 1443 AH," the Crescent Department of the Saudi Supreme Court said.
In the kingdom, this will be the first year since 2019 that Ramadan, the holiest month for the world's more than 1.5 billion Muslims, will be observed without Covid restrictions.
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Four other Gulf countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE – also announced the Saturday start of Ramadan 2022.
Usually, the crescent of Ramadan is first sighted in Saudi Arabia and then a day later in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and other countries.
The first day of the dawn-dusk fasting month of Ramadan, the ninth of the Islamic calendar, is determined by both lunar calculations and physical sightings of a new moon.
When it comes to Ramadan crescent moon sighting, many Muslim-majority countries used to align themselves with the Saudi announcement, but in recent years many used their own astronomic calculations.
The countries that follow the date set by Saudi Arabia include Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Romania, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Yemen, and the UAE.