On the eve of 1st Shawal, just after the late evening prayers, we and our neighbors got together and went from house to house to recite the ‘takbir’ glorifying the Almighty and being pleased that He had granted us the strength and ability to perform what were necessary for us to perform in seeking His pleasure during the past month. We divided ourselves into groups based on the streets we live in and in our street there were seventeen houses available for us to visit as others have gone away for the holiday either to spend it with parents and close family members or just to be away from home. My immediate neighbor was away in Mecca.
Family members from the seventeen houses visited each others houses. There were about thirty adults and similar number of children. Children were the happiest that night as they not only join in in the ‘takbir’ but were rewarded with ‘raya packets’ (containing money) at every house they visited. Each house would also prepare food to serve, and some prepared heavy stuff like lasagna, pizza, rice and beef ‘rendang’, apart from cookies and cakes. As we approached the last few houses some of the kids were clearly sleepy, from too much pizza and lasagna perhaps, but they fought it and tried to stay awake. My grandson Babang followed us through to the last house while Dedek lasted only until we reached our house. He could not stay awake to follow us to all the remaining houses. We started at about 8.30pm after late evening prayers, and we visited the last house in the street at about 1.00am. I found out the next day that one street in our community completed their ‘takbir’ visits at close to 3.00am. Most others completed at just before midnight.
In the morning, the first day of Shawal, we congregated in the mosque for the Eid’l Fitri prayers that was held at 8.30am., and which lasted for about one hour.
The mosque was full. There was a funeral that morning too. One of the elders in our community had passed away the day before, the last day of Ramadan. Almost all stayed back to perform prayers for the deceased. After prayers we went straight home and together with our three children, spouses and grandchildren held a thanksgiving prayer and also prayers for our deceased elders and relatives, before partaking the food family members had prepared for the Eid’l Fitri occasion.
There was glutinous rice steamed in pouches made from coconut frond, beef and chicken to go with it. Shaffik had cooked chicken with herbs in bamboo. We also had ‘dendeng’ which is thinly sliced beef cooked dry in soy sauce and spices. There was also rice cooked in tomato and spices. Ram’s niece came and joined us in the celebration. The foods were rich!! After fasting for one month, all the glorious food we take now would only add back the bulges we shed during Ramadan!! In the afternoon, we went in three cars to Johor Bahru to spend the next few days there with my mum and visit elders and close relatives. We also visited the graves of my late father, Ram’s father, mother, brothers and sisters and other relatives. We were in JB for three nights. The last night, i.e. on the third night of Shawal was when we had our annual family gathering, and this year was the 24th annual gathering. More on this later.
Ram’s sister Shidah, who spent the last two weeks of Ramadan and a few days of Shawal in Mecca came home on the day we departed JB. She arrived home just at about dusk. We had dinner with her and left JB for PJ at about 10pm arriving home in PJ at about 2.00am. It was a pleasant drive, the kids were sleeping and there were not much traffic on the road. It was different during the day hours I was told. The roads were jammed packed with cars and people took more than six hours to go from JB to KL. It was a blessing that Shidah arrived home late, thus we delayed our travel to the period when traffic was low. It was pleasant indeed…..
MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya
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