Celebrating Eid ul-Fitr
October 1st this year saw Eid ul-Fitr being celebrated by Muslims. It is better known as Hari Raya Aidilfitri in Malaysia. The whole month before Eid ul-Fitr was the fasting month. Eid ul-Fitr marked the end of the fasting month, Ramadan.
A few weeks before Hari Raya, one could feel a distinctive festive ambience throughout the country. Chock-a-block shopping malls are typical. Muslims prepare for the biggest ˇ°Day of Celebration. People talk about how and where they will be pushing their boat out during the week-long festival.
ˇ°Balik kampong as they call it, is travelling back to home town to join the elders for the joyous celebration. This is an enormous scale of migration from big cities to rural areas. Usually, it creates massive traffic congestion but people keep doing it year after year. "Balik kampong" is almost compulsory.
Comes Hari Raya, dressed in their
best colourful traditional clothes, parents and their children head to the nearest mosque for the special morning Eid prayer. Before the prayer begins, each and every Muslims make an obligatory donation to the poor so that they too, are able to join the celebration. This is a certain amount of food or cash.
After the prayer, they will usually drop by the cemetery to recite a particular chapter from the Quran, asking God to forgive the dead. Later at home, children kiss their parents' hands and ask for forgiveness. The other family members join in. Children are extremely cheerful, since on this day, adults are generally generous. Children are given cash as gifts.
Customary dishes as well as other meals are served. They spent the rest of the day serving visitors at home, or visiting relatives and friends. Lots of greetings are exchanged. People are encouraged to strengthen ties among one another. To forgive and forget is a norm on these days.
A few weeks before Hari Raya, one could feel a distinctive festive ambience throughout the country. Chock-a-block shopping malls are typical. Muslims prepare for the biggest ˇ°Day of Celebration. People talk about how and where they will be pushing their boat out during the week-long festival.
ˇ°Balik kampong as they call it, is travelling back to home town to join the elders for the joyous celebration. This is an enormous scale of migration from big cities to rural areas. Usually, it creates massive traffic congestion but people keep doing it year after year. "Balik kampong" is almost compulsory.
Comes Hari Raya, dressed in their
After the prayer, they will usually drop by the cemetery to recite a particular chapter from the Quran, asking God to forgive the dead. Later at home, children kiss their parents' hands and ask for forgiveness. The other family members join in. Children are extremely cheerful, since on this day, adults are generally generous. Children are given cash as gifts.
Customary dishes as well as other meals are served. They spent the rest of the day serving visitors at home, or visiting relatives and friends. Lots of greetings are exchanged. People are encouraged to strengthen ties among one another. To forgive and forget is a norm on these days.
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