::Raya::

I posted this entry on my friendster blog. But i think the content is still relevant.

Being the ‘oldies’, hari raya is less meaningful than the time when I was small where Hari raya was always being “the-most-awaited-event”. New baju raya, new kasut raya, duit raya, meeting cousins, uncles and aunties and most importantly my beloved grannies were around. Hari raya eve, all of us will gather at my granny’s house, glued in front of tv waiting for the announcement and when it’s confirmed we will run like crazy to tell the elders. And then, we will play fire crackers and ‘meriam’. Yes, you read it right, we did play meriam as my uncle owned one. But just a small meriam. We will play until the clock hit 12. we were tired, yes we were, but we were very happy. The next day, my sisters and I will wake up early morning, wore our best baju kurung, completed with new shoe, posing in front of the mirror (although we had done it dozens times before the hari raya), kissed our parents hands, ate ketupat and get ready to go to my grannies’ houses ( I had two grannies). And as expected, we will go and search every aunty and uncle and with much eager, kissed their hand with hidden agenda (yes …duit raya!). And if I continue talking bout my then hari raya, one page wouldn’t be enough but what I can conclude is, back then, hari raya was the most happiest moment in my life. But now things changed. My beloved grannies had passed away years ago. So no more exciting hari raya and me playing fire crackers?! God forbid! The meriam was gone too. Duit raya is much lesser now- actually none. As we are getting older, responsibilities increase and unlike when we were small, being older makes us more ‘less fun” as there are too much other things to think about.

But still, raya is raya, celebrated with “Syukur”, after one month of fasting. I’m sure that I will miss the holy month of ramadhan as it managed to train me to become more responsible towards my religion. It is during the ramadhan that we will try our best to avoid not only the ‘harams’ but also the ‘makruhs’. We tried our best to become as pious as we could, but one question to be asked? How long this piousness will last?!-at the end of ramadhan?!. Tepuk dada tanyalah iman. As for me, one “doa”, I hope I could meet ramadhan next year and be better than this year- InsyaAllah. To all muslimin , "happy fasting and yes"Eid Mubarak"or "Selamat Hari Raya".