Lebaran Day 2011: A Split Decision

Pantai Labuhan Jukung, Krui, South Sumatera, at Lebaran Day 2011, day 4

‘Split decision’ is the right words to describe Lebaran Day 2011 in Indonesia. Officially, as the Government have stated, Lebaran Day 2011 comes on August 31. However, some Indonesian Moslems, mainly Mohammedan followers, have celebrated Lebaran Day on Ausgust 30, one day earlier than the Government version.   

Since Lebaran Day comes right after Ramadan finishes, and Ramadan month is measured according to the phase of the moon, so you have to make sure that the moon of Ramadan is over, and you’ve sighted the new moon (the moon of Syawal) in the sky, first before you can decide the Lebaran Day. 

And the problem is that it’s not easy to see the very young, the hours-long moon by your naked eyes. You need high technology to be able to spot such a thing.

However, Moslems people have their own way to see the new moon (called ‘hilal’), which is called ‘hisab’. ‘Hisab’ which means ‘counting’ is an old Islamic way to count the days of the moon. ‘Hisab’ is often combined with ‘rukyat’ to make an exact calculation. People who is expert in counting the moon is called ‘ahli hisab’. ‘Rukyat’ is the method of sighting the new moon. ‘Rukyat’ means ‘sighting’. Rukyat needs modern technology as well as astronomy to accomplish, while ‘hisab’ is more about a traditional way.

In determining the Syawal moon of 2011, the Indonesian Government, which sees eye to eye with NU followers, combined this two methods to get the more precise calculation. However, the result is always subject to a debate since other groups (especially Mohammedan) still hold fast to their tradition. And this is not the first. Indonesian people have experienced a lot of split decision like this in calculating the Lebaran Day in the past. The split decision comes almost every year.

In this 2011, Mohammedan followers, and some other groups like PERSIS, in all parts of Indonesia initiated Lebaran Day on August 30. However, a small number NU followers in some parts of Indonesia also started the Lebaran Day on August 30. (NU is a kind of conservative school in Islamic tradition in Indonesia, while Mohammedan is considered as progressive.) But since Mohammedan followers is a minority, and only a few NU followers share a different opinion, the Lebaran Day on August 30, is not as common as it is on August 31.

In Krui, south Sumatera, some people ended up their Ramadan on August 29 so as to celebrate Lebaran Day on August 30, but they don’t have the gut to do shalat Ied (morning pray as an initial part of Lebaran Day) because they are only a few, a minority. They put off the shalat Ied to the next day, at the same day as majority of people do.

However, in other areas like Yogyakarta and Padang, where the number of Mohammedan followers is quite significant, the shalat Ied is held as usual, followed by thousands of people. In these areas, there looks like two Lebaran Days of the same Ramadan of the same year, where Mohammedan followers initiated the Lebaran Day on August 30, and their counterpart, the NU followers, started the next day, on August 31.

Although it’s a hard decision with so many pros and cons arguments, and it’s not easy to make, the ambiguous Lebaran Day after a split decision like this is always accepted in peace. Both parts (mainly Mohammedan followers and NU followers) respect each other’s decision and committed to follow the decision they believe as true.     

Beside Indonesia, countries that initiated Lebaran Day on August 31 are Oman, Libya, South Afrika, Brunei, India, Pakistan, and Ceylon.***