What is the hilal?
The new crescent, how it begins each Islamic month, and why we named Hilal & Hue after it.
Hilal is the Arabic word for the new crescent moon: the first thin curve of light that appears in the western sky shortly after sunset, a day or so after the new moon. It is a small thing to see, often no more than a fine line low on the horizon, gone within the hour. Yet for Muslims around the world it marks time.
A calendar kept by the moon
The Islamic calendar is lunar. Each of its twelve months begins with the new crescent, and the moon takes about twenty-nine and a half days to go through its phases. A month cannot contain half a day, so each one lasts either twenty-nine or thirty days.
Twelve lunar months add up to 354 or 355 days, roughly eleven days fewer than the solar year. That is why Ramadan, the Hajj and the two Eids arrive about eleven days earlier each year by the Gregorian calendar, and why over a lifetime each of them falls in every season.
The Quran speaks of the new moons directly. In Surah Al-Baqarah, people ask about the ahillah, the plural of hilal, and the answer comes: “They are measurements of time for the people and for Hajj.”
Looking for the moon
On the evening of the twenty-ninth day of a month, people look to the west after sunset. If the crescent is seen, the new month begins the next day. If it is not seen, the current month runs to thirty days. Watching for the moon in this way, sometimes from a rooftop or an open hillside, is an old and much-loved practice, especially before Ramadan and at its end.
Seeing it is not always easy. The young crescent sits close to the setting sun, and it can be hidden by haze, cloud or the brightness of the sky. Astronomers can calculate exactly when the new moon occurs, but whether the thin crescent will actually be visible from a given place is a harder question.
Communities approach this in different ways. Some rely on local sightings, some follow sightings announced elsewhere, and some use astronomical calculation. That is why Ramadan or Eid can begin on different days in different countries, or even within one city.
A small thing to see, often no more than a fine line low on the horizon. Yet it marks time.
The shape itself
Part of the hilal’s appeal is its geometry. A crescent can be drawn with two circles of the same size, one slightly offset from the other: what is left of the first after the second has passed over it is the crescent. Our print Construction shows exactly that, with the compass lines of the two circles still visible.
Over the centuries the crescent has appeared on domes and minarets, on flags and coins, in manuscripts and on textiles. It is a modest shape, and it has proved remarkably adaptable.
Why we chose the name
Hilal & Hue began as a simple idea: a free library of art for the walls of homes that care about Islamic tradition and modern design in equal measure. When it came to a name, the new crescent felt right for three reasons.
- It marks a beginning. Each month starts with it, and this library is a beginning too.
- It asks you to look up and pay attention, which is what good art on a wall should do.
- It belongs to everyone who watches for it, whatever their background, just as these prints are free for anyone to download.
Hue stands for colour: the saffron, indigo, madder and gold that run through the collections. Together the two words describe what we hope to offer, a quiet shape and a considered palette, made carefully and given freely.
Starting with the Hilal collection
Our first collection takes the crescent as its subject: twenty studies in midnight ink, warm bone and a single muted gold. Some are almost empty, like First Light, a hair-thin crescent high in a dark sky, or Earthshine, where the rest of the moon’s disc shows faintly beside the crescent. Others are built from many small parts, like Quiet Grid, rows of identical moons with one picked out in gold.
If you are new to the library, they are a good place to start. Every print is free to download at 300 dpi in every frame ratio, for your own home, office or classroom.