After one month of fasting in the holy month of Ramadhan now comes the most awaited celebration (well, at least for us). Eid-ul-fitri. For 4 years now I haven’t had the chance to celebrate eid with my family and friends back home due to study commitments. One would say eid is eid, no matter where you and whom you spend it with, but as most of my countrymen would tell you the eid celebration back home is, in another word, "havoc lah"…
The day would start with getting up, cleaned and dressed with our newly bought clothes, going to the mosque for the eid prayers and then back home for some heavy-duty breakfast feast. Well, I don’t know about the others, but when my family gets together we’ll just eat and eat and eat. One can be sure that there’ll be no shortage of food supply at my grandparents’ place when we congregate there, be it eid or almost every weekend. Don’t you all agree, my darling cousins?
And after (or sometimes before) that, the most important part of the day starts. It’s the part where we will all sit around and go to each person to ask for forgiveness for all of our wrongdoings from each other. The sequence would be starting from the oldest son/daughter right up to the youngest. Oh, and another important thing to note, our traditional clothes MUST have pockets with ample space. And for the girls, handbags, preferably . Why? Because while we’re going around shaking hands and hugging our beloved we’ll also receive small, flat packets filled with some money. Yup, I think for me personally this part is the part that most of the small kids will get excited about. Well, actually, not only the younger ones, even the older ones are in for it too. Who wouldn’t? Extra pocket money for us? Hello….
But there’s a downside to it though. Not like the chinese where you will have to give angpows only if you’re married (am I right here?), for the malays the ones who are already in the workforce (i.e.earning an income) will have to set aside a small sum of their salary just to give out these "duit raya" to the younger and non-working/studying ones. Hehehe, like what my cousin said to me that day, "Alah, koyak lah poket camni kalau keluarga kita bertambah besar…" Well my dear, don’t worry. In 3 years time I’ll be contributing too, insyaallah. Hey, you know what, maybe we can pool our money and combine it to give to them. Whaddya think?
And after all the "I’m sorry for everything" session which would sometimes, or most of the time for my grandmother at least , be accompanied with the release of the tear flood gates (banjir, lah…), the guests would start coming to the house. You see, during the month of Syawal for us it’s the time where we would visit our relatives, be it near or far "untuk mengeratkan tali silaturrahim". Sometimes it’s the only chance for us to meet with our distant relatives and get to know them. And more food and hogging. Honestly, by the time we’re done visiting for the day we would be so full that our clothes would start to feel a l’il bit tight in certain places . But being here during eid I do miss the traditional cakes and biscuits back home that are normally only available during eid. Best nya makan kuih raya…..
Oh well, all in all, that’s the Eid celebration at home. And not forgetting also, we Malaysians celebrate Syawal for one whole month. So do expect to be invited to open houses hosted by family and friends, and that explains also why one needs more than 2 pairs of new clothes (for some people anyways) as they would get more invitations to these functions compared to others. But actually, how many is enough? Personally I’ve stopped buying new ones for me as I’m using my current ones over here. Nobody would know any differently, right? Ooppsss…shouldn’t have let the cat out of the bag, now everyone would know. Silly me …..
So, to all of you…
SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI
MAAF ZAHIR BATIN
Mohon maaf jika ada tersilap kata terkasar bahasa, Halalkan makan minum
&
EID MUBARAK !!
You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits.
