The “extremely rare event” of the Lunar New Year, Ash Wednesday and Ramadan in close succession is being celebrated in much of the world this week.
After the “Chinese New Year” was celebrated on Tuesday, many Christians are observing Ash Wednesday today to mark the holy period of Lent leading to Easter Sunday after six weeks.
The two successive events will be followed by the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that officially starts on Thursday, February 19 in most of the Islamic world.
While the Lunar New Year is celebrated with much food and fanfare especially by the Chinese, the Christian Lent and the Ramadan is characterized by fasting in certain hours of the day.
This year is the first time since 1961 that the three events are happening in close succession.
In February 15 of that year, the Lunar New Year and Ash Wednesday began within hours of each other, with Ramadan following the day after.
Such alignment usually happens every three decades, but this year’s three-day succession of the events is rarer as it last happened 65 years ago.
This is made possible as Ramadan moves backwards yearly by at least 10 days, cycling through the Gregorian calendar every 33 years. The Lunar New Year and the start of the Christian Lent have a fixed window of between February and March.
The specific three-day succession seen this year is an exceptionally rare event that will not repeat until the year 2189.
In the predominantly Christian Philippines today, Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, and many Presbyterian and Reformed churches will have their foreheads marked an ash cross, reminding each penitent of their sins and mortality and the need to repent.
It is based on Genesis 3:19 of the Holy Bible that says, “…for dust you are and to dust you shall return.”
Bangsamoro Mufti Sheikh Abdulrau Guialani meanwhile declared that Ramadan in the Philippine will commence tomorrow, February 19.
The successive three-day events closely followed the romantic western tradition of Valentine’s Day last Saturday, February 14. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
