Hari Raya

After returning from Bukit Fraser, I had a brief rest before the festivities of Hari Raya started. Hari Raya is a Malay word meaning “Day of Celebration” to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Across the Muslim world the name will be Aidilfitri or some other corruption of the original Arabic word. It is also called Hari Raya Aidilfitri here but commonly known as simply “Raya”.

My first stop was Kak Jamaliah’s house. I have been friends with her and her family for the last three years. They were quick to point out this is the third Raya that I have come to their house. I love talking to her mom, who is 87 (something she mentions frequently) but she speaks Malay with a thick accent and doesn’t adjust her language at all for me, the non-native speaker. We all sat around on the living room floor and had the traditional “kuih Raya” or “Raya cakes” of which there are about 1 million varieties. Ever so often, kids from surrounding houses would stop by and ask for “duit Raya” or “Raya money”. It is a lot like trick-or-treat at Halloween only you get a coin, usually a 50 cent piece. Needless to say the kids go to every house they can. Also, duit Raya is given in the form of small green envelopes with one or two ringgit inside. If you stop at a house usually you give an envelope to the kids from that family. I don’t have to because I am single and only married people should give them out. I tried to hand them out a couple of years ago and was reprimanded for it.

My second stop was Abang Mi’s house. His wife is near her due date and I am looking forward to celebrating the arrival of his first son any day now. I had some laksa (sour and spicy fish soup) and some ketupat (glutinous rice cooked inside a leaf) with a beef dish. The best food is served during Raya!

The village was having a fun fair for the kids in the nearby park. Fatihah, Abang Mi’s daughter, and her cousin Ali came back having just won a huge pear. They wanted to go again so I took my camera and followed.

The first game we played was coconut bowling. You stood about the distance of a bowling lane from a small goal that was shaped like a football or soccer goal. Then you rolled the coconut and if it went through the goal, you won a pear. I had to show off my mad skills, winning on my first throw. The younger kids got to step much closer and roll the coconut. In the end both Fatihah and Ali won pears. It was a blast to watch them play.

Fatihah helps Ali perfect his bowling form

Concentration is key in any sport

Ali gets a running start and Fatihah lends her support

Fatihah sends one towards the goal

Ali eyes the goal

Next we went to a part of the field where they had marked out 8 lanes. About two-thirds down each lane a chair was placed. Teenage girls from the village put a paper plate on each chair and then hid a piece of wrapped candy in a mound of flour. At the signal, the 8 kids would race down their lane, blow into the flour until they saw the piece of candy, then dive in and grasp it with their teeth. They then ran to the end of the lane and the first one to make it to the end with a piece of candy received an additional prize. The others just got to keep their piece of candy from the mound of flour. The kids were really enjoying it but Fatihah really got a face-full of flour and decided to go back to the house to clean up.

Blow, blow, blow your flour

Sprint for the finish

Candy is even sweeter when you work hard to get it!

This was my fifth Hari Raya in Malaysia and I think I enjoy it more every year. Definitely a fun time to meet with friends and experience the sights, sounds and culture that make Malaysia so wonderful!