Hari Raya Aidilfitri or Eid ul – Fitr is one of the most meaningful event for

Muslims all over the world. It is celebrate every year in the month of Syawal in Islamic
year. It is also known as ‘Lebaran’ or the day where we seek for forgiveness physically
and spiritually. Eid ul-Fitr is the time to reconcile and renew relationship with other..
Before we celebrate Eid ul – Fitr, the Muslims must fast for a month in Ramadan (
a month before Syawal). It is mandatory for Muslims to fast from dawn to dusk. All
Muslims except the young, old or infirm must fast. Fasting in Ramadan now is very
different from those days. I am still remembering when I was at age ten, Ramadan is the
best month at my village. We use to play more during this month especially at night. In
Ramadan, Muslims will pray Tarawikh prayer every night. As a kid, I use to take this
chance to go the mosque with my friends. After eight ‘rakaat’ of Tarawikh, we will stop
pray and play at behind of the mosque. We will play ‘catch a thief’ and ‘galah panjang’. It
was so enjoyable time. After finished playing, we will eat the ‘moreh’, foods that served
for the Muslims after finished pray the Tarawikh prayer...
Another thing that I can never forget about Ramadan night is about playing fire-
cracker and bamboo cannon ( meriam buluh). If we are not play at the mosque, we will
play the bamboo cannon near the paddy-field. There are two types of the cannon. One we
called it bamboo cannon because we is the big bamboo as a cannon and another one is the
ground cannon where we dig a hole as a cannon.. Basically, a typical bamboo cannon
consists of a large bamboo and I will mix calcium carbide and some water. The chemical
willformed as a resultan explosive gas. The gas will explodes when exposed to flame
targeted to the mixture. The explosion may causeinjury to the player if not handled
carefully. The best things that I remembered, we always fight with the other village
nearby whose cannon is the most powerful. We play until midnight without any afraid of
ghost because during Ramadan, all the Satan and devil were tight...
Other than that, I am also play the fire cracker. Even now, all the kids will play the
fire cracker or ‘bunga api’ during Ramadan’s night. I remembered that once where my
friend got burnt because of the fire – cracker. We were scolded by his parents all the way
to the hospital and thank God he was slightly injured. Another event during Ramadan’s
night is playing the ‘gendang’ or ‘tabuh’ at the mosque. The elders will play it until the
time to ‘Sahur’. Sahur means the time where Muslims eat the last time at early morning
before Subuh prayer. After that is the time of fasting.
Fasting for a month is very challenging especially for a young kid at ages ten.
Fasting means you cannot eat drink and put something into your body. During Ramadan,
Muslims are also expected to put more effort into following the teaching of Islam by
avoiding violence, anger, envy, greed and all the bad things. Muslims also order to recite
the Quran every night in Ramadan.
Even other religions do fasting. Hinduism, Buddhism, Christian Lent and the
Jewish fast with their own way. It is also different from one another. Members of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints generally fast for 24 hours on the first Sunday
of each month. Like Muslims, we refrain from all drinking and eating unless they are
children or are physically unable to fast. Fasting is also a feature of ascetic traditions in
religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism.
The scenario in Ramadan’s night are very different from now days. Although
there are some event still continuing but our children now use to stay at home during
Ramadan’s night watch television or play computer games. They do not now how to play
and enjoy playing some traditional games during the nights of Ramadan. Who should to
be blamed? If this continuing, our future children will never knows all those things and
event. It will be lost in time..
 Actually, there are a lot of meaningful event in Ramadan such as go to the Bazaar
Ramadan, breaking the fast at the mosque, ‘Lailatul-Qadar’s’ night and paying ‘zakat
fitrah’ but what I want to share here is the most meaningful time is the celebration of Eid
ul-Fitr.
After all above, the best moment is celebrating the Eid ul – Fitr. It is very much
commercialized in Malaysia. The big promotion will be all over the shopping malls and
supermarkets. The Muslims will buy new clothes and supplies. This is the best part where
last time I will go to the ‘Pasar Hari’ with my father to buy some new clothes and it is the
time where I can choose ‘Baju Melayu’ for my ‘Hari Raya’ day. Everything will be new.
The ‘Hari Raya’ songs will be played in the radio and the television.
The town people traditionally return to their hometown to celebrate Eid ul-Fitr
with their family and friends. The roads will full of cars all over the way to north, south
and east. The traffic will be bad especially two days before Eid ul –Fitr. The bad things
are there will be a lot of accident during the traffic. Road safety campaigns are often
launched by the government ahead of the festivals in effort of lowering the discomforting
numbers of accident.
On the eve of the celebration, family members especially mother and housewife
will be busy preparing food, cakes, ketupat, lemang and a various delicious to be served
on the day of Eid ul-Fitr. The favourite meal in my village is lemang, ketupat and
rending. It is compulsory to be served on that day. If the women will busy at the kitchen,
the men will busy clearing the house compound, wash the windows and even paint the
walls. At night, I will lit up the oil lamp all over the house.
On the early morning of Eid ul –Fitr, when I was young, I will wake up early, pray
the Subuh prayer then help my mother preparing the breakfast. That is the first day
Muslims will take the breakfast after fasting for a month. After that, I will put my new
‘Baju Melayu’ and go to the mosque for Eid ul-Fitrprayer. Before we do the prayer, al
the Muslims will recite ‘takbir’. Once the prayer is done, it is also common for Muslims
in Malaysia to visit the grave of their loved one. I used to visit my parents grave during
this time with my siblings.
The rest of the day is spent visiting relatives or serving visitor who come to my
house. When I was young, I used to go to the entire house in my village to collect money
or we called it ‘duit raya’. In this day, the adults are extra generous. Children will be
given money a much like RM 1 or 50 cents. I used to take this advantage to go all around
my village to collect ‘duit raya’ with my friends. Even now, these traditional activities are
still going but only in the village area. None of urban children will go to the house around
their neighborhood to collect money. Children these days like to sit at home and watch
television programme. It is should be a very joyous day for children.
Now days, during the Eid ul-Fitr, all my siblings will gather at our hometown.
That is the most meaningful time where we will seek forgiveness among ourselves. It is
also the time where I will train my son to become a good manner person, generous and
always respect to the elders. After that I will bring my son to visit his grandfather’s and
grandmother’s grave. Then, he will follow his cousins go to house by house seeking ‘duit
raya’ as what I am doing when I was young.
For me, Eid ul-Fitr is one of the most meaningful events for Muslims. It is
celebrated all over the world even in Iraq where the war is on or Palestine where every
day we heard about the Zionist attack the Muslims. It is the day to enjoy the winning after
a month fasting. It is the day that Muslims are generous, forgiveness and kindness. In
Malaysia, there will be a lot of Muslims opens the house for their friends to come and eat
variety of foods. Sometimes I had to attend five open houses of my friends in a day. The
government were also do the event that called ‘Rumah Terbuka Aidilfitri Kebangsaan’
and all the races in Malaysia which able to come and enjoy the foods. The open house
invitation will continued for a month of Syawal.
It is my grateful if all the event and activities in Ramadan and Syawal will keep
on. Although the celebration are different between the countries all over the world but the
main things is to thank to our God for the winning after a month fasting. Amin.