Kizyr wrote:Dragonmaster Lou wrote:Hope you had a very happy Eid. I can't help but feel sorry for any Muslims living anywhere north of the Arctic Circle this year though...
I kid, I kid...
Oh that is tough actually, but Muslims that far North don't fast on a purely daylight-based schedule. There are various fatawa (plural of fatwa, which means religious opinion) on the subject -- the most commonly-followed ones are that once the daylight hours go above 20/day (or some other high level), you can either follow the schedule of the closest city due South that has enough daylight or follow the schedule in Mecca. Fasting isn't meant to be a hardship, so after the first 2-3 days it should be possible to acclimate regardless of where you are, hence the exceptions.
Yeah, I figured there would be something along those lines. I think I remember hearing a story where an English diplomat was talking to a Saudi religious leader about that situation and said leader said, "Well, we'll just split the day into 12 hours of fasting and 12 hours of non-fasting." Following the schedule in Mecca also makes a lot of logical sense to me, for some reason.
