Hari+Raya

BACK TO PB IN MALAYSIA


 * P.B Junior’s Hari Raya By Yasmin Centeno**

Every year, Hari Raya Aidilfitri (or Eid Murtabak) is celebrated, after a month of fasting; by Muslims around the world. This year, the Hari Raya and Deepavali celebrations were within a week from each other; so there was a long holiday, which lasted for one week. P.B Junior’s first host was Kabir, he hosted P.B for three days. Kabir celebrated Deepavali with his family. He took pictures celebrating with his family and friends before handing over P.B Junior over to me.

P.B Junior stayed with me for a week and a half. We traveled to Malacca, about 120 km south from Kuala Lumpur. It took us about 2 hours, then another hour to get to my mothers village, which is a fairly rural part of Malacca. P.B was greeted by my mother’s family and my cousins were very fond of him. Preparing for Hari Raya was basically cooking, and more cooking, the whole family were helping out. I was helping with making ketupat (rice cooked in coconut leaf, eaten with rendang or curry), but P.B was too tired of the fasting and playing with my annoying little cousins, and just wanted to rest before the big day.

On Hari Raya itself, we got up at 6.00 in the morning; it was a bit too early for him thought, he wasn’t too happy about it. We were staying at my uncle’s house, about 20 minutes from my great-grandmother’s house, where the rest of the family stayed.



We had to get to the local mosque before the aidilfitri prayers started, which was at eight. I couldn’t take P.B to the mosque, it was inappropriate to do so, so he stayed with my great-grandmother.

P.B had some rendang (a curry-like dish, a Malaysian dish, normally eaten on this occasion), while I was at the Mosque.





I followed my mother to pay my respects to the family members we have lost, after our prayer. We read some Quran for them before leaving the graveyard. My mother and I went to the village shop, and ended up talking to her old friends who grew up in the village together.

When I got back, P.B was playing with my cousins and my Great-uncle’s rabbits. P.B got scared after one of the rabbits bit one of my cousins.



The food was ready, and my Great-uncle was giving us our ampau (envelope containing money, which is given to children). People started to visit, P.B started posing for photographs with them, eating with them, but unfortunately, he didn’t receive any money.



The days after were basically the same, visiting everyone, little stinkers (my cousins) fighting over him, and crying over him and poor P.B started to feel a bit home sick. When we finally got home, he got some well deserved rest. He was a bit sick from the pizza we had at my aunt’s, who we gave a lift home to Seremban (from my great-grandmother’s house), which is roughly half way between KL and Malacca. I’m guessing, his not a big fan of Pizza Hut.

That was Thursday, we had another week. To be honest there wasn’t much to do. Shopping, homework, shopping…. TV… but he did eat half my cake my great grandmother gave to me, and emptied the bottle of coke that was in our fridge for 2 months. He better get some exercise.