Ketupats & Bunga Api

Ketupat: Savoury rice cake wrapped in woven coconut leaves.
Bunga Api: Fireworks

In a couple of days, Muslims all over the World will be celebrating one of our major celebrations Hari Raya Aidilfitri. It signifies the end of the Holy Month of Ramadhan (fasting month) and is a celebration of family reunions and traditional delicacies.

In Malaysia, most Malays will celebrate Hari Raya by going back to their hometown (balik kampung). The notorious Raya Jam will start as early as 5 days before Hari Raya itself and sadly enough, the day will often bear witness to fatal road accidents. It's a crying shame that many lives are sacrificed in the haste to balik kampung.

My family and I, we don't have a kampung to go back to because I only have one grandmother left and she's staying in KL.. In fact, she lives 5 minutes away from my house. So usually, we'll visit her on the morning of Raya and spend the rest of the day visiting our other elders. For the past few years, Hari Raya has been an opportunity for us (my immediate family) to take our family vacation. This year, we'll be flying off to Sydney, Australia on the day after Hari Raya. I'm always happy to be spending time with my family and travelling has always been a passion of mine...

But I do miss the good ol' days of Hari Raya....

My father is from Muar, Johor and my mother is from Taiping, Perak. They've managed to avoid the petty squabbling some couples have in deciding where to celebrate Hari Raya every year. We alternate. This year in Muar, next year in Taiping etc etc.

I remember the gleeful anticipation of Hari Raya... The fresh, crisp new clothes, the shiny new shoes.. The excitement of packing our bags to spend 2-3 days in the kampung.. The looonnggggggg drive (and the massive jam) that we had to endure before entering the peaceful paradise of a quiet village. I loved every second of it.

I have loads of cousins. LOADS. And many of us are in the same age bracket, so when I was a child, it was tremendous fun to get together. We'd run around the compound chasing chickens and geese (something you just can't do in the busy streets of KL... no geese). We'd gaze in awe at some deserted plot of land, making up stories about the ghosts that occupied it. We'd admire the array of beautiful little cookies that will be served only during Raya month. We'd look forward to the Eve of Raya, hoping against hope that an adult would be kind enough to let us have some fun with bunga api.

Usually, we'd get lucky and spend the whole evening amidst sparkles and smoke (gravely supervised by the adults who'd be sipping coffee and chatting away). Being kids, we'd find ingenious ways of playing with fireworks... Slipping loud crackers under the skirts of our meanest aunt.. Throwing sparklers into coconut trees (our version of a Christmans tree, perhaps?)... Poking sparklers in the ground and gleefully take turns jumping over it. Yes, it all DOES sound incredibly dangerous but we survived :) (And it couldn't have been THAT dangerous as the adults were there ALL the time...)

Raya morning would be spent with prayers, seeking forgiveness from one another and FOOD. GLORIOUS FOOD. Ketupat & lodey, rendang, pulut (glutinous rice), fried chicken, sambal sotong, nasi beriyani, satey... It was a feast fit for a king! Several kings! The rest of the day would be spent either visiting other family members and friends (and getting duit raya..) or lying on the floor like a beached whale while watching all the raya specials on TV.

I truly, truly loved spending raya at the kampung... But thing's change... After Aki & Opah (my mother's parents) passed away, we rarely went back to Taiping. And when Atuk (my father's dad) passed away and Uwan (my father's mom) moved to KL to be near her children... we rarely go back to Muar...

But some thing's DON'T change. We STILL make the time to visit each other, have huge family gatherings with LOADS of food. It's still a lot of fun and it's STILL a day I look forward to. It may not be my childhood raya, but it's still a good raya...

SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI & MAAF ZAHIR BATIN!