My Raya Story

Raya is only two days away, and I can't wait to go home and eat mak's raya food. It's Gombak's turn this year, babeh!

Somehow, at 29 years old,  as much as I want to be excited about raya, even the hippiest raya song of all fails to get me hyped up about raya. As hyped up as I used to be kecik kecik dulu. Haih, age does wonders you know. Anyhoo, I still love raya. The food, the family gaths, the salam-salam peluk-peluk (probably the only time in the year when I would peluk-peluk my siblings).

Based on my conversations with colleagues and friends, raya in KL is unlike raya in kampungs. Ours is... short. But meriah nevertheless. Here is my raya routine for 24 years (tolak 3 raya in the States and 3 yrs raya in Johor):

A day before raya:

• Masak rendang
• Masak kuah kacang
• Masak nasi impit
• Kemas rumah, tukar all stuff that can be tukare-d

Malam raya

• When abah was still around, I would help mak prepare tapai for that night's takbir guests. Where I live, the surau people would go from one house to another to do takbir raya. The first takbir would start after Isyak prayers. Since Abah was one of orang kuat surau, rumah kitorang memang a must-visit, usually the guests would arrive at 10-ish pm. Memang meriah, mak will serve chilled tapai with ice-cream. The term Mustapai was famous back then, after Abah's name, Mustafa and mak's tapai. Hehe.
• Then we would play bunga api with all my nephews and nieces who came that night.

Pagi raya

• Bangun pagi and help Mak serve all dishes on the dining table
• Mak pergi for raya prayers while I continue in the kitchen. Somehow I don't go for raya prayers. Ish ish.
• Mak balik, everyone (siblings, in laws, nephews and nieces) balik and all of us would have our raya breakfast
• After breakfast all of us will gather in the hall and the sentimental minta ampun session starts (this is when everyone will cry, or at least shed one or two tears)
• Bagi duit raya 
• Dah salam and bagi duit raya, sambung makan.
• After lunch tengok tv. (dulu2 tengok lontong, serunding, movies and what have yous that they have on tv listing lah)
• At 5 pm we would go visit Abah's dad, he used to live very near to us. 
• Malam first raya sambung tgk tv while preparing for the next day's Annual Idris Clan Gathering

Second raya

• Gerak to Seremban (or designated kumpul house) where the Idris clan would have our annual raya gath. It used to be sangat meriah, once in Paloh at paklong's house, paklong rented karaoke set and all of us kids would karaoke and dancing dancing sampai pagi. The pakciks will borak borak over teh tarik sampai pagi. Nowadays the celebration is a little subdued but still meriah nevertheless.

And that's about it. Those three days define my raya. After the second day, everything went back to normal.

Until today...

Okay sambung esok esok.