One day, 2 days, a week, a month or maybe a whole year? I had a brief conversation just now with a colleague. He told me that here in Kedah people usually celebrate raya for only 2 days, unlike in Johor or KL or other parts of Malaysia who would usually celebrate this happy occasion for a month. The way he put it sounded like "you people like to have fun while we are more down-to-earth kind of people" or something to that effect. I have to say I was bit intimidated.
Well, I told him Kedahans may celebrate raya for 2 days because most of them do not need to go out of town to be reunited with friends and relatives. Relatives are mostly a stone throw away. For people like me who are hundreds of miles away from my family, the 2 days are only good for travelling to and from my hometown. For those who are working, the best time to celebrate would be weekends, and there are usually four weekends in a month. So how is it possible for people like me to celebrate raya in 2 days? Maybe my dear colleague should get out of Kedah more often and experience for himself what 30 days of Syawal is worth!
Coming back to my raya, it is always a happy moment for the whole family. It is one of the few occasions that we get to come together and renew and "refine" our relationship. The first day has always been the day for visiting close relatives. Since my parents passed away, not many relatives would come to our house especially on the first day. A bit sad actually when you realise that you are not significant after your parents are gone. But on the other hand, it gives us the chance to do the visiting - something that we did not get to do much before.
The food? Of course. It won't be raya without food, and I mean plenty of good food. We had ketupat, rendang, the delicious ayam masak merah (which I cooked) and laksa johor (Ngah's specialty). But we did not get to savour them much as we all went "beraya". So the food was carried forward to the second day.
The second day is the day for rest. Well, not actually. Although we did not go out to visit families and friends, they instead came over to our house. Dozens of them. It was quite chaotic but a pleasant one. Children were running around, ketupat and laksa were just enough for whoever that was lucky to enjoy them. Anyway, I thank GOD that we did not waste anything. But the best dish of the day was of course, gulai BAUNG. I managed to grab a few of the fish when I went to the market the day before raya. The lorry delivering the fish had just arrived and I did not waste even a second to grab hold of the still alive-and-kicking fish. Gulai baung was the best raya dish for me this year.
We left for KL on the third day unsatisfied as there were many more relatives that we did not visit. But due to time constraint we had to shelve it for next year or whenever time permits. If you realise, the visits that we made had only been to relatives, not friends. So is 2 days possible to do everything?
Lastly to my family and friends, I would like to wish all of you SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDIL FITRI, MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN.
