Onsets of Lent, Ramadan intersect
COTABATO CITY—As Christians and Muslims across the country share in the spectacle and spirit of the Chinese New Year on Tuesday, they also prepare to welcome the onset of the most important season in their respective faiths.
Christians begin the observance of Lent today, Ash Wednesday, which could also be the start of Ramadan, the ninth and holiest month in the Hijri or Islamic calendar.
The Hijri year is 354 to 355 days, 11 days short of the Gregorian calendar. Both calendars intersect every 33 years.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent or the 40-day period before Holy Thursday. For Christians, Lent is a season for prayer, repentance in preparation for the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It will culminate on Easter Sunday.
During Lent, Christians are expected to fast through avoidance of meat and reducing the size of one’s meal, as a show of penance and commemoration of Jesus’ life in the wilderness when he fasted, prayed and endured temptations from the devil.
First Quran revelation
On the other hand, Ramadan is the ninth, holiest month in the Hijri or Islamic lunar calendar, observed by Muslims worldwide.
It is a period also of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community, commemorating the first revelation of the Quran.
During this 29-day to 30-day month, healthy adult Muslims abstain from food, drink, and intimacy from dawn (Suhoor) until sunset (Iftar) as one of the five pillars of Islam, focusing on spiritual growth, gratitude, charity, and self-discipline, ending with the festival of Eid al-Fitr.
The Bangsamoro Darul Ifta, the Islamic advisory council in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), had set official sighting of the Ramadan moon on Tuesday, which builds anticipation among the faithful, some of whom gather as a family while awaiting the announcement of the commencement of the fasting month.
As the sun set on Tuesday, moon sighters face west to get a view of the horizon for a glimpse of the crescent moon. If it is sighted, fasting begins on Wednesday, otherwise the first fasting day will be on Thursday.
‘Shared beginning a grace’
“These shared beginning is a grace. It invites us to slow down, to return to God and to walk together in faith,” Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, prelate of the Diocese of Kidapawan in Cotabato province, said in a statement.
Bagaforo, who also chairs the Commission on Inter-Religious Dialogue of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said during these sacred seasons Muslims and Christians enter a time of prayer, fasting, repentance and generosity.
“We turn our hearts to the Merciful. We learn again to see one another as brothers and sisters,” he said.
Bagaforo extended his greetings of peace and solidarity with “our Muslim brothers and sisters who will also commence the sacred observance of Ramadan.”
BARMM trade fair
On Monday, the BARMM government center put on a Ramadan vibe with a trade fair operating from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua also ordered the adjustment of work schedule for BARMM employees, from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., without noon break, so that the 40-hour workweek is not affected.
“Ramadan and Lent remind us that faith must transform the heart and shape our actions,” Bagaforo said. “Fasting opens our eyes to suffering and enlarges our compassion. Love of God is proven in love of neighbors, especially the poor and the forgotten.”
Bagaforo invites Christians and Muslims “to pray together and work together.”
“Let us care for the poor. Let us protect creation, let us educate for peace. Let us respond together to the wounds of our world,” he said. “These are sacred tasks. These are works of peace.”
“May this shared observance of Ramadan and Lent become a living prayer; a prayer spoken through fasting and generosity. A prayer lived through fraternity, compassion and care for our common home,” Bagaforo said.
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