Aidilfitri Eve

This year I decided to celebrate my Hari Raya in my old house in Kg. Tunku, Petaling Jaya. The house has been closed for Raya celebration about 10 years. My children flew to Kuching to be with me for Raya when I was there and there was one year when Ika was the only one who could make it. So, immediately after Aidilfitri prayer at the mosque, we drove to Sri Aman and then to ..........................(oh gosh, I forgot the name of the town). We stayed overnight there and the next morning we took a boat ride to Tanjung Manis for a day. Dr. Napsiah's brother-in-law and wife were our hosts and we got to experience the Melanau Muslims celebrating Aidilfitri. Ika and I just loved the colourful houses (reminded me of the Malay Quarters in Cape Town) with flowering gardens,

So this year my sister-in-law (ex) is coming from Adelaide to celebrate Raya with us and she wanted to meet family members, so I decided to have her with me in Kg. Tunku. I told Kak Nor that Raya without my parents are so different - not as fun and kecoh as before when everybody met in my parents' house. First come first serve - whoever arrived early got to sleep in the 3 rooms available, the rest camped at the sitting room area. There were so many of us! The children had fun playing bunga api and collected duit raya from the uncles and the aunties. Those were the days!

Ika and Justin are playing hosts now. We prepared some snacks for the group tp come for takbir on Raya night. It was lucky the rain stopped. Justin played quite an active role in helping for the preparation. At about 9 pm the group arrived and I met a number of neighbours whom I have not met for quite some time. Unfortunately the session was a swift one as they have many more houses to visit on our stretch of road. By the time they arrived at the last house, I bet everyone will be full. So I told Ika to remember not to buy so much food next year. I was happy we opened our house this year. Justin has the experience of how we celebrated Raya eve but Kak Nor missed it as she arrived late.

Tomorrow on Raya day, we decided to stay home for Kak Nor to rest and for my brothers and sisters to come and visit - mostly to meet Kak Nor again after so many years. We still love her and consider her our family and she still has good and friendly relationship with my brother, Ariffin. I hope my nephews, Shah and Razali will be able to come back to visit Malaysia again one day and see the places they used to live.

It's going to be a good Aidilfitri for us.