In 2024, the south of Gran Canaria will witness an event that occurs according to the lunar calendar. For the first time in years the mosque will call for prayer during the Maspalomas International Carnival in perfect harmony. If the Judeo-Christian tradition emphasized the liberating and "sabbatical" sense of the Carnival festival, Islam adds the sense of cyclical regeneration (i'âda), as expressed, for example, in the prophetic tradition (sunnah) of going and returning. of holiday prayer in different ways. The Islamic calendar follows the lunar cycle, in which months begin and end with a new moon, just as days begin and end with sunset. In the case of two stars with different orbits, the lunar months do not always coincide with the solar months, which is why a retroactive lag of about ten days per year occurs. That is, the lunar months rotate through all the seasons in a cycle of approximately 36 years.
The sacred month par excellence for Muslims, and it consists of every Muslim who has passed puberty must abstain from eating, drinking, smoking or having sexual relations between dawn and dusk for the duration of that month. The Maspalomas Carnival has a good part of its epicenter in Playa del Inglés and the City Council has planned measures so that celebration and prayer coexist as always: with total normality in one of the largest and most popular carnivals in Europe and attracts more than 200.000 visitors every year.
Islam only recognizes two festivals: the "small festival" of breaking the fast ('îd al-fiṭr) that marks the end of Ramadan (first day of the month of šawwâl) and the "great festival" of sacrifice ('îd al -aḍḥa) marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca (tenth day of ḏû-l-ḥijja). In pre-Islamic times, the duration of the calendar was not fixed; Islam established it by prohibiting the practice of occasionally intercalating months or days to adjust or extend (nasâ') the lunar calendar to the solar calendar (Quran, IX, 36 and 37): The only criterion accepted when establishing the calculation is the strictly lunar one, as can be seen in the setting of the month of Ramadan (Quran, II, 185).
The beginning of the Islamic calendar is established in the year 638 of the Gregorian calendar, at the time of Caliph 'Umar b. al-Ḫattâb, and from a key episode in the history of Islam: the exile (hijra or hegira) of the Muslims to the city of Medina in the year 622. Although the Islamic community had already suffered other minor exiles to African lands, the exile to Medina is the one that is considered the most important and decisive. The Islamic calendar has twelve months, of which four are considered inviolable: muḥarram, rajab, ḏû-l-qa'da and ḏû-l-ḥijja. The Arabic word used to distinguish these months is harâm, a concept that could be translated as "inviolable" or "carrying limitations, prescriptions or prohibitions", with reference to the pre-Islamic periods of pilgrimage and truce. Islam echoed and accepted them. The Islamic lunar year has between 354 and 355 days, divided into months of 29 or 30 days (yawm). The days are grouped into weeks (usbû ') and take their name from their numerical order: Sunday is the first day (yawm al-ahad) and Saturday is the seventh and last (yawm as-sabt). The exception is Friday (yawm al-juma'), which takes its name from the midday prayer, when the entire community (jamâ') attempts to gather.
