Saudi says Eid-ul-Fitr begins Tuesday

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia announced Monday that the Eid-ul-Fitr feast marking the end of the fasting month of Ramazan will be on Tuesday, in a statement aired on state television Al-Ekhbariyah.

Religious authorities in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest shrines, said the new moon had been sighted and that Ramazan ends on Monday with the feast to follow the next day.

The Islamic calendar is a lunar one, and most Muslim countries set the beginning of Eid-ul-Fitr by the sighting of the new moon.

Egyptian state television, quoting Islamic authorities, too declared that Eid-ul-Fitr will be on Tuesday.