My Hari Raya Celebration

Eid Mubarak or primary known as Hari Raya Aidilfitri by Malaysians is the most significant event in a Muslim calendar. It is the day of celebrating the victory of a month of fasting which is Ramadhan. After the obligatory 30 days of no eating from dawn until sunset, we can lastly eat the traditional, delicious and also high calories foods which are dodol, lemang, rendang and so on. Hari Raya Aidilfitri is not mainly about eating , yet about visiting the relatives and friends no matter where there live either at the villages or the towns.

Would you like to know about my Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration this year? Well it was not like the one that I had celebrated for like the last 10 years. The dull atmosphere without all my grandparents’ grandchildren produced a non-chaotic gathering. This was because, the short period of school holidays prevents them to come back to their beloved grandparents’ house. Not only that, my uncle from Sarawak failed to buy any aeroplane tickets due to massive number of people who would like to go back to their hometowns.

For me, the most memorable moment of Hari Raya Aidilfitri is the day of gathering of all the family members. We will then cook lemang and rendang together the day before Hari Raya Aidilfitri. While our mothers helped grandmother in the kitchen, we, the children and teenagers helped to sweep the floor, put up new curtains and fill containers with various types of kuih raya. On the other hand, our fathers lit up pelita outside the house which were well arranged to produce creative shapes like cluster of stars if seen from a far distance. The chatting, laughing and giggling while doing these activities not only make us enjoy ourselves but also tighten our relationships.

In the morning of Hari Raya Aidilfitri, everbody enjoys eating those lemang and rendang that were prepared the day before. Then, we will go to mosque for Aidilfitri prayer. I still remember my past time experience of performing Aidilfitri pray in a small mosque near my grandparents’ house. When my cousins and I reached the mosque, it was not crowded with people yet. As the time past by, we, the kids were forced to go to the last saf due to the increasing number of people. The aunties and grandmothers there pushed me and made me almost crying. Luckily my cousins were there to console me. From that time onwards, I never come back to that mosque again for Hari Raya prayer. Perhaps, I asked my father to choose a bigger mosque so that we can concentrate on performing solat.

Preparing ourselves before the collecting duit raya session.

When the clock stroked 9.30 a.m, or when we had perform our Aidilfitri prayer, we were heading back to our grandparents’ home. The forgiving session will begin. This is the best part of the day for kids. This is because, they will gain angpau or duit raya after they ask for forgiveness while shaking their uncles and aunties’ hands. The angpau (paper case) containing a sum of notes. Those who were not married yet will also gain this duit raya from each of their uncles and aunties. The older the age, the higher the sum of the money received.


We were queuing to collect the duit raya.

Next, all cameras will be set to snap the pictures of all the family members of each wearing new and up-to-date raya attires. After the house were full of krypton flashes, the people will get ready to go to our grandparent’s siblings’ houses.

Hari Raya Aidilfitri (2006).

Hari Raya Aidilfitri (2005).

The convoy of about 7 cars will move to one house to another. As our grandparent’s siblings’ houses were located around the town, we usually managed to finish visiting all the houses in just a day. The time allocated for us to eat the kuih raya and chatting was just about 15 minutes on each houses. If the rules were broken, we will be late to enjoy special dinner prepared by my aunty.

This is my family’s tradition. We are all enjoy this tradition of eating sour and savory dishes at each aunties’ houses. If in the morning Auntie A who lives in Klang prepared us breakfast, then our Auntie B who lives in Shah Alam prepared us our dinner. The uniqueness of this tradition is that we, the other family doesn’t have to prepare our own meals for that day. Unfortunately , we must prepare meals for them in the next day or so on. This also gives us opportunities to travel outside our hometown without even thinking about the way of getting foods.