Today everybody is sitting at home or praying at Mosque, because today is the day when Mohammed prophet moved from Mecca to Jerusalem.
The real event, however, starts tonight. Tonight the star spica - in Somali language called "dirir" - will be occulted by the moon. The spica is the brightest star of the virgo constellation and has been worshipped for centuries in the Middle East. I am not very familiar about who is who in the sky, but I found out it is a binary star and in Somali culture (some say, some hope) it has almost the significance as the Sirius in the Dogon culture. The occultation of "dirir" is marking the Somali pastoralist New Year, called Dab'shid. This is somewhat derived (according to Lewis: People at the Horn of Africa) from the Persian New Ruz. The problem is, the Dabshid is related to the lunar calendar and changes its date continously about 2 days back from year to year. The Persian New Ruz is fixed on March 21st. I think the Persians corrobated their New Year, and the Somali pastoralists kept its origin. I will discuss this with my Iranian friend here in further detail. Anyway, today is Monday, so this year is a Monday year. So what happens in this Monday year, will also happen in future Monday years - to be expected in 7 or 8 years. Last year was a Saturday year, and Saturday years bring all types of misery. So it is good that it will be over now. The lunar and the solar calendars of the Somali pastoralists are also used for forecasting the weather. For example, if it rains this night, the rainy season will be good. Especially the next 7 Mondays. Then the Monday period will be over and the Tuesday period will begin for another 7 weeks, so what will happen on Tuesday, will be auspicious for the next 6 Tuesdays. It is quite easy, it is Somali regression analysis based on astronomic events. Probably not more unreasonable than our regression analysis, maybe more reasonable. I have understood it all now, how the stellar constellations in the sky are related to things on earth, and how this originated in the science of mathematics. Because the Somali astronomists told me. I have been both disenchanted and fascinated in a new way. So I will try to see Spica winking to me behind the moon tonight. Let's see what good or bad it will bring to me. And I will wink back.
Anyway, because
