Regarding calculating Ramadan: The Islamic calendar is lunar, not solar, and is about 11 or 12 days shorter than the "normal" Gregorian calendar. Months (including Ramadan) start when the first crescent of a new moon is sighted. This varies according to the atmospheric conditions and the exact positions of earth, sun and moon, but can be calculated to within about a day for any given location, which is good enough for tz data in the absence of any further specific information for a location. There is also an ongoing debate in Islam on whether the calculated date is good enough, or whether they should stick with past practice of having official observers watching the sky to announce the start of the month. What cannot be done is to say that it always falls between a given pair of Gregorian calendar dates, due to its shifting. Tim Smartcom Software Ltd Portsmouth Technopole Kingston Crescent Portsmouth PO2 8FA United Kingdom www.smartcomsoftware.com Smartcom Software is a limited company registered in England and Wales, registered number 05641521. -----Original Message----- From: tz-bounces@iana.org [mailto:tz-bounces@iana.org] On Behalf Of Ian Abbott Sent: 16 May 2012 09:59 To: tz@iana.org Subject: Re: [tz] Morocco Daylight Saving Time On 2012-05-16 09:26, Mohamed Essedik Najd wrote:
Good Morning Everyone;
I am really glad that I have joined this mailing list.
I just wanted to tell you that Morocco passed to DST during the last week end of April and this will remain active till the last weekend of September , with a suspension during Ramadan (Roughly between 20 July, 19 august, [Lunar Month, not sure yet])
I know establishing the start of Ramadan isn't an exact science, but surely there are lower and upper bounds that law-makers could use for DST purposes? -- -=( Ian Abbott @ MEV Ltd. E-mail: <abbotti@mev.co.uk> )=- -=( Tel: +44 (0)161 477 1898 FAX: +44 (0)161 718 3587 )=-