Eid Al Adha is less than a month away and residents are looking forward to planning their vacations.

Here is the holiday guide that you can use to plan vacations for the upcoming Eid Al Adha holidays.

Since the Islamic Hijri calendar is based on moon sighting, therefore, Islamic months span over 29 or 30 days – unlike 31 days in Gregorian calendar.

On an important note, Eid Al Adha holidays usually begin a day before Eid, on the day of Arafat.

Based on this calculations, if the current month of Dhul Qadah ends after 30 days, then the private sector could have a five-day break, including the weekend, as the Arafat Day will be marked on Sunday, September 11, and Eid will begin the next day.

Private sector employees will most likely have holidays from September 9 to 13 and resume work on Wednesday, September 14.

If the current Islamic month of Zulqada spans over 29 days, then the private sector will most likely have four holidays from September 9 to September 12.

For public sector, which generally enjoys a four-day break on Eid Al Adha, government employees could have six days off from September 9 to 14 if the current Hijri month of Dhul Hijjah ends after 30 days.

In case it ends after 29 days, public sector employees will likely have five-day break from September 9 to 13.

The public sector in the UAE enjoyed 9-day break for Eid Al Fitr this year.

As reported by Emirates 24l7 earlier, Kuwait may approve a nine-day break for its civil servants if Eid Al Adha begins on Sunday, Sept. 11.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia’s moon-sighting committees will meet on September 1 to announce Haj and Eid dates. Barring some Asia countries, most of the Arab countries and the Muslims in the Western countries mark Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha on the same days.

Sharjah Planetarium forecast

The Sharjah Planetarium has forecast that the Hilal (crescent) will appear on Thursday, September 1. It added that by that calculation Sunday, September 11, is the first day of Eid Al Adha, ‘Al Ittihad’ newspaper reports.

Ibrahim Al Jarwan, Researcher and General Supervisor, Sharjah Planetarium, said the Hilal (crescent) should be above the Western horizon by at least 5 degrees and will remain above the horizon after sunset for at least 20 minutes.

Source: emirates247.com