It's already 20th Syawal and we are now in the recovery movement control order. I hope we are at the end of our fight over covid 19 pandemic. It's been a while since we started all these fights. Things that we thought would just be a day or two thing has dragged into more than three months. A lot has happened, changes to be made in our conduct and we experience a totally new experience in celebrating many events in our lives.
During the pandemic we celebrated four out of five birthdays among our family members (Alana luckily managed to celebrate her birthday in Mecca before all these started. The rest of us has to celebrate our birthdays at home). And of course for the first time ever, we celebrate the eid in the comfort of our home. We do them all at home... the eid prayer, the takbir, the photoshoot and of course the feast...
Eid has always been special ever since I was a kid. When we were smaller, we'll celebrate them in both our grandparents houses. If my father got his off day or if he's working on a night shift we'll either go to my mom's side first in the morning and my dad's in the evening or the other way around. If he's working we'll stay at home till he comes back. But nevertheless he'll take us to visit our grandfather's grave. That would be our routine for years.
We lost our grandmother on my dad's side when I was in standard three. Since then, we'll visit our grandparents' grave and celebrate the eid in my mom's village (or rather town) in Kajang. When I was in secondary school my grandma started to stay with us. This is when my mom's siblings and my grandma's visitors would be the regulars in our place.
With the number of visitors to our house every year you can see our house that we thought comfortable enough for us would be too small for everyone. You can see the men and boys sitting outside the house because the space inside are all being filled with people. Normally my mother's siblings would have some sort of unspoken schedule on whom to visit at certain hours on the day (and night) for they'll be coming with their children and grandchildren (normally all of them).
As for the dishes, we'll make the basics for every hari raya. We'll have beef rendang (this is basically mom's and later dad's signature dish. Alhamdulillah I managed to learn and master the rendang making before they passed away) lemang, ketupat and kuah kacang... on top of that we'll stock up on eggs, sardines and anchovies because every family would be having brunch, lunch, late lunch, dinner or supper in our place. And they would request anything but the hari raya dishes. So as if it's being promised every year our main hari raya dishes would be malay omelette, sardines, fried anchovies with onions and chillies, and definitely 'sambal tempoyak'. Top up with cucumber and other ulam or if we feel like it we'll have the pounded tapioca leaves in coconut gravy (pucuk ubi tumbuk masak lemak cili api).
That's hari raya for us... My grandma passed away when I was in my matrics in UiTM... Since then my uncles and aunties would still come for a visit during hari raya, but as the time goes by we've lost not only my aunties and uncles, but also some of my cousins... Now both our parents are gone and the eid feels lonelier than ever... I suppose this year since we've just lost dad we don't feel as bad since there's no big eid celebration around us... Whatever it is, the eid would still be celebrated in our own way. We are grateful to Allah for another year of ramadhan and syawal and for the family and friends that we have to share the eid with us though not together...
During the pandemic we celebrated four out of five birthdays among our family members (Alana luckily managed to celebrate her birthday in Mecca before all these started. The rest of us has to celebrate our birthdays at home). And of course for the first time ever, we celebrate the eid in the comfort of our home. We do them all at home... the eid prayer, the takbir, the photoshoot and of course the feast...
Eid has always been special ever since I was a kid. When we were smaller, we'll celebrate them in both our grandparents houses. If my father got his off day or if he's working on a night shift we'll either go to my mom's side first in the morning and my dad's in the evening or the other way around. If he's working we'll stay at home till he comes back. But nevertheless he'll take us to visit our grandfather's grave. That would be our routine for years.
We lost our grandmother on my dad's side when I was in standard three. Since then, we'll visit our grandparents' grave and celebrate the eid in my mom's village (or rather town) in Kajang. When I was in secondary school my grandma started to stay with us. This is when my mom's siblings and my grandma's visitors would be the regulars in our place.
With the number of visitors to our house every year you can see our house that we thought comfortable enough for us would be too small for everyone. You can see the men and boys sitting outside the house because the space inside are all being filled with people. Normally my mother's siblings would have some sort of unspoken schedule on whom to visit at certain hours on the day (and night) for they'll be coming with their children and grandchildren (normally all of them).
As for the dishes, we'll make the basics for every hari raya. We'll have beef rendang (this is basically mom's and later dad's signature dish. Alhamdulillah I managed to learn and master the rendang making before they passed away) lemang, ketupat and kuah kacang... on top of that we'll stock up on eggs, sardines and anchovies because every family would be having brunch, lunch, late lunch, dinner or supper in our place. And they would request anything but the hari raya dishes. So as if it's being promised every year our main hari raya dishes would be malay omelette, sardines, fried anchovies with onions and chillies, and definitely 'sambal tempoyak'. Top up with cucumber and other ulam or if we feel like it we'll have the pounded tapioca leaves in coconut gravy (pucuk ubi tumbuk masak lemak cili api).
That's hari raya for us... My grandma passed away when I was in my matrics in UiTM... Since then my uncles and aunties would still come for a visit during hari raya, but as the time goes by we've lost not only my aunties and uncles, but also some of my cousins... Now both our parents are gone and the eid feels lonelier than ever... I suppose this year since we've just lost dad we don't feel as bad since there's no big eid celebration around us... Whatever it is, the eid would still be celebrated in our own way. We are grateful to Allah for another year of ramadhan and syawal and for the family and friends that we have to share the eid with us though not together...
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