Eid al-Fitr begins Tuesday for most Mideast Muslims, Libya (AFP)
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RIYADH (AFP) - Eid al-Fitr festivities marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan will be celebrated on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Libya and Jordan, officials said.
Religious authorities in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest shrines, said that the new moon had been sighted and that Ramadan ends on Monday with the feast to follow the next day. Lebanon and Jordan made similar announcements.
The Islamic calendar is a lunar one, and most Muslim countries set the beginning of Eid al-Fitr by the sighting of the new moon.
But Libya -- where the feast also begins on Tuesday -- uses astronomical calculations.
In the Muslim kingdoms of Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates there was no immediate confirmation that the new moon had been sighted, but generally they follow Saudi Arabia's cue.
During Ramadan, observant Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex between dawn and sundown each day, after which they break their fast in what is known as iftar.
The month is also a time of solidarity and of giving to the less fortunate.
Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Libya and Jordan, officials said.(AFP/Khaled Fazaa)" class="newsimage" />