HEGIRE 2022 – MUHARRAM 1444. If the officialization of the date of the Muslim new year is also based on confirmation by lunar observation, astronomical calculations have already spoken. Explanations and key info.
[Mis à jour le 29 juillet 2022 à 11h05] When exactly does the Muslim New Year start? The CTMF (Muslim Theological Council of France) formalized the date designated by astronomical calculations, in a press release dated July 22. The instance declares that “the conjunction (new moon) will take place on Thursday, July 28, 2022 at 5:55 p.m. GMT (6:55 p.m.: Paris time)” and that “the vision of the new crescent moon will be possible, inshaAllah, the next day, Friday July 29, from 7:32 a.m. GMT (8:32 a.m. Paris time).
If the crescent moon is visible on this Friday evening, it theoretically means that the Islamic new year is 1444 (the Islamic era begins in 622, with the hegira episode) will start the next day, Saturday July 30. New Year’s Day in the Muslim calendar is also called “Raas Assana”. Considered a holy month by believers in Islam, the first month of the Islamic year, the month of Muharram, follows that of the “hajj” (great pilgrimage) in the Hijri lunar calendar. Traditionally fasted by Muslims, the day of Ashura would therefore correspond to Monday, August 8.
Two methods co-exist to determine the date of the beginning of a new month of the lunar calendar, that of astronomical calculations and that of observation of the sky (see explanations here). It is the religious commission of the Great Mosque of Paris which announces ultimately officially, following the complementary observation of scientific data and the sky with the naked eye, the date of the Hijri New Year. This announcement comes on the 29th day of the month of the current lunar calendar.
Two distinct points of view exist as to the date of “Raas Assana”, another name given to the Muslim New Year. The reason ? To know when a month of this lunar calendar ends and we enter another, we must see the crescent of the new Moon appear in the sky. However, there are two methods to ensure this:
- the first method is to scan the sky. If we see the Moon with the naked eye, it means that the new month – and in this case, for Raas Assana, the new year – begins the next day. It’s the Ggrand mosque in paris who decides on the detectable aspect or not of the nocturnal star. For this body, whose decisions are generally followed by the Muslim community of France, the date of the 1st Muharram [nom du premier mois du calendrier musulman] 1444 [prochaine année dans le calendrier musulman] must correspond to Saturday July 30, 2022. It was only a few days or the day before that day that this information was confirmed, via the traditional lunar observation organized in the evening.
- the second method, called “astronomical”, makes use of scientific calculations. These allow the identification of a precise date of entry into the new year. According to the supporters of this method, including the CTMF (Muslim Theological Council of France), “the conjunction (new Moon)” is predictable and we can already say that the new year will begin on Saturday July 30 in 2022.
What does the Muslim New Year of the Hegira cover? Already, it is the first day of the lunar year and the month of Muharram, a sacred month which corresponds to the first month of the Islamic calendar. The first Islamic year began in 622, with what Muslim believers consider to be the emigration of the Prophet Muhammad (or Muhammad) from Mecca to Medina, then called Hijra. For Muslims, the Muslim New Year therefore represents nothing less than the foundation of their religion, Islam.
The date of the Muslim New Year changes every year in our Gregorian calendar, since the lunar calendar used by Muslims, the “Hijri” calendar, is about 10 days less. In 2022, the Hegira is not celebrated in the same period as the Jewish New Year (5781), Rosh Hashana, which must take place on the days of September 26 and 27, 2022.
If the Muslim New Year is not traditionally a day of celebration, unlike theEid al-Fitr for example, marking the end of Ramadan, or Eid el-Kébir, alias the feast of the sacrifice, it precedes Achoura by 10 days, provisionally fixed this year for Monday August 8, 2022. Finally, the date of the Hegira corresponds to a day holiday in several Muslim countries.
The Hegira or Muslim New Year, or “new year of the Hegira”, is also referred to by the term “Raas Assana” in the Muslim religion, but it can also be called Al-Hijra. It is a reminder of a Muslim holiday which requires the observation of the crescent moon during the night of observation / doubt to be validated, as for the Ramadan.
Hegira 2022, or the Muslim New Year celebration, brings the Hijri calendar into its 1444th year. A count that starts in the year 622 of the Christian era, the supposed year of the exile of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina, and therefore the year of the foundation of Islam.