Moon Sighting Committee to review job description

For those not familiar, the Moon Sighting Committee plays a vital role in Middle East society - they declare when our public holidays are going to be.

You and I both know that the moon is a cyclical thing, it travels at a fixed speed on a pretty predictable orbit, and the Christian calendar uses this science to plan years, decades, centuries ahead for Easter holidays each year. Want to know when Good Friday will be in 2017...no problem! Other holidays - in Britain at least - are at equally predictably times: last Monday in August, 25th December, 1st January...

Not so in this part of the world - it is at once an amusing cultural quirk and a bizarre irritation when trying to plan an Eid get-away more than two days in advance.

In a potentially historic turn of events, however, the Government yesterday announced that 'regardless of when the new moon is sighted, the public sector will observe Eid holidays beginning on Saturday'. Which means we can similarly predict private sector hols with a whole four days notice.

The Moon Sighting Committee - who must be wondering where their career path goes from here - will meet anyway on Saturday. But they must be wondering what they are going to discuss when their key decision making responsibility has been done for them. If there was a Moon Sighting Trade Union, they'd be going on strike.

I had previously been of the opinion that this 'calling' of public holidays at such short notice must be one (of severak) factors that hinders the smooth running of international trade, but now I kind of miss the anticipation! There's just no pleasing some people!

Eid Mubarak to family and friends.