By BAMIDELE JOHNSON
Woke up to something we are remarkably gifted at doing. It is making a seven-course meal out of a coincidence. It used to be about dates like 12-12-2012 until that became impossible. Now, it is about observances.
Today, according to many social media posts, is special because Ramadan and Lent started. “It is not a coincidence,” many declared, as though they had just stepped out of a strategy meeting with the cosmos.
It is a coincidence. Get used to it. Ramadan moves backwards by about 10 or 11 days each year because it follows the Islamic lunar calendar. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is tied to Easter, which is calculated through a cocktail of lunar cycles and ecclesiastical arithmetic. Two moving targets are bound to collide occasionally.
As recently as 2024, both observances began on March 13 in Nigeria. The heavens did not split. Traffic did not improve. DISCOs did not repent. One wonders what monumental shift occurred simply because two fasting traditions shared a start date. What seismic transformation followed when Eid-el-Fitr and Easter Sunday both fell on March 31, 1991? I do not remember any, probably because my memory is always vacationing.
If anything, the more interesting question is not whether the seasons start together. It is whether the values they summon (restraint, generosity, repentance and discipline) last beyond that period.
The baseless excitement ignores the fact that not all Christians observe Lent, which is restricted to liturgical traditions such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Methodist Church and Lutheran churches. Many Evangelical, Pentecostal, Baptist and independent charismatic churches (church aladani) do not formally observe Lent at all. For millions of Christians, the season passes without ashes, fasting guidelines or purple vestments. When we speak of “Christians and Muslims fasting together,” we imply a uniformity that does not exist.
Is it pleasant when two major faith traditions enter seasons of reflection at the same time? Perhaps. I am open to that. But special? I am not persuaded. Calendars overlap as calendars do. The Gregorian and the Hijri systems are not foes. They move differently. If anything, the more interesting question is not whether the seasons start together. It is whether the values they summon (restraint, generosity, repentance and discipline) last beyond that period. That is what would be special.
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