Jakarta, NU Online
The nation’s two biggest Islamic organizations are in agreement this upcoming weekend about the exact date of the Idul Adha celebration, which they say will fall on Sunday.

In August, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah were not in accord on the date of Idul Fitri, the Muslim festivity marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. NU sided with the government, which celebrated Idul Fitri on Aug. 31, while the Muhammadiyah argued that the holiday fell on Aug. 30.

Najib Hamid of the Surabaya chapter of Muhammadiyah said that his organization has been calculating the movement of the moon in relation to the Earth since Thursday and concluded that the month of Dzulhijjah began on Friday.

Idul Adha, which marks the end of the Hajj pilgrimage season, falls on the 10th of Dzulhijjah in the Muslim lunar calendar.

“Based on our calculation conducted in Tanjung Kodok, Lamongan [East Java], God willing, we will celebrate Idul Adha together [with NU],” Najib was quoted by the Jakarta Globe as saying.

Sholeh Hayat, deputy chairman of the East Java chapter of NU, said that their observation led to the same conclusion.

“One indication is the alignment of the Earth, moon and sun, which occurred on Thursday between 2:56 a.m. and 4:11 a.m.,” he said, adding that based on Islamic astronomical texts, Thursday’s alignment thus signalled the end of the lunar month.

Calculating the date of Idul Adha has always been less controversial than Idul Fitri, which falls on the first day of Syawal, according to the Muslim lunar calendar.

In August, Muhammadiyah argued that calculating Idul Fitri based on the visual appearance of the crescent moon was impractical — it can only be done a day beforehand — and opted for another calculation method.

But NU chose to wait it out before declaring Idul Fitri’s date ,arguing that visual validation is the method described in Islamic texts. The organizations have often disagreed on the start of Ramadan and Idul Fitri over the years.

Meanwhile, more than 183,000 pilgrims from Indonesia have arrived in Saudi Arabia for this year’s hajj season. Another 18,000 are expected to arrive today, with the last flight scheduled to arrive at 11 p.m. local time.

As of Sunday, there had been 451 flights from Indonesia to Jeddah, the main arriving point for pilgrims around the world. Most flights were from Adisumarmo airport in Solo with 84, Juanda airport in Surabaya with 79 flights, and 77 flights from Jakarta’s Halim Perdanakusumah and Soekarno-Hatta airports. Both Jakarta airports also host pilgrims from West Java.

Based on the number of individual pilgrims, most Indonesians departed from Surabaya, with 35,230 people, and Jakarta, with 34,461 people.

From the 12 embarkation points in Indonesia, only North Sumatra’s Polonia airport has flown all of its scheduled flights. This year, 8,499 pilgrims flew from Polonia on 19 flights.

Indonesian officials in Mecca recorded that 76 Indonesian pilgrims had died in the holy land due to dehydration and old age.

The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and all Muslims are required to make the pilgrimage at least once in their lifetimes.

Millions of Muslims around the world are expected to participate in this year’s pilgrimage. (dar)