Asim: Has it been announced in Indonesia?
me: Yes, it's going to be on Wednesday. Not today.
Asim: Wow! Why?
me: Mafi ru'yah.
Asim: Hmmmmm. Strange.
me: (shrugs) Indonesia's too far in the east; moon's too young.
Asim: So you were fasting today? :( Poor thing!
me: the Timekeeper gave me dangerous looks when I complained. He said, "You fast for Allah, in gratefulness to Him. If you complain about giving Him just one more day, don't bother fasting."
Asim: (long LOL). Scary clergy.
me: (whimpers) Can I have an extra Eid chocolate with that?
Update (03/09):
This is how Triesti explained the different dates of Eid on her blog.
No one can see the moon on Monday in Indonesia. You can see the moon in the Western part of the Southern hemisphere, though. Apparently, on Tuesday there is a conjunction of moon and sun, which means it's a new moon according to the astronomy. Muhammadiah is supposed to cite a certain Koranic verse to use the conjunction as the start of a new moon. However, according to that scientist, there are more verses supporting looking for hilal. Apparently, the fact is you can only see a hilal when the moon is up about 2 degrees. On Monday, the moon is up less than 2 degree, therefore the next day couldn't be considered a new month.
I then asked why Saudi celebrated it on Tuesday when the moon is up less than 1 degree there. He said, in Saudi, no one verifies the witness, so as long as someone came up and said he saw hilal then they declare it as a new month the next day. In Indonesia the government verify the witnesses. In that sense, Indonesian government did it very well for once.
