HARI RAYA PUASA

Hari Raya Puasa falls on the month and the first day of Syawal. Syawal marks a New Year in the Islamic calendar. On the first day of Hari Raya, all male Muslims must go to the mosque for their Hari Raya prayers. On this very day, we would celebrate after fasting for a month! Hari Raya prayer consists of 'two rakaat' and a 'kutbah', leads by the Imam. After the prayer, all Muslims would greet each other and ask for forgiveness. Greetings and forgiving each other symbolises a clean and new year ahead for everyone.

At home, the women will be preparing all the special dishes for the big feast! Once all the men have returned from their prayers, we will have a meal together as a family. Usually, we would eat lontong, rendang, ayam merah, serunding and sambal goreng. 'Kuih tart' and 'kuih makmur' will be served too! These two 'kuih' (cookies) are our traditional cookies, so they are the "must have" goodies in everyone's home.

After the feast, we would go to our paternal grandparents house, then to our maternal grandparents house. Everyone would put on their new clothes. Men would wear baju kurung complete with songkok, and women would wear baju kurung with selendang. But before we leave home, we have to seek forgiveness from our own parents. Only then we would get our first 'zakat' money from our parents.

Hari Raya Puasa celebration would last for one month. The younger generations have to pay respects to the elders by visiting them at their homes. During the visits, we would seek forgiveness from them. We will not receive any 'zakat' money once we start working. This means we are already in adulthood and it is our turn to give 'zakat' money to the younger ones.