Raya Preparation in Malaysia

Gosh! After 2 years beraya abroad, I just couldnt wait to celebrate Eid here. In kampung, with family. Just 2 differences tis year, compared to the years celebrated before I flew off to NZ: 1) Atuk Mok is no longer with us, 2) Atuk Ayah kene stroke in the mid of Ramadhan. So, tis year's raya might not be the same as wat I could recall from my memory of prev raya celebrations in msia.

Talking about the preparation. There is never less-work when it comes to raya celebration for me. Maybe there is for other people out there. But, in tis family of mine, being a girl, one can never escape from kitchen chores.

Starting on Sunday (the day when my mum and my siblings returned back to our home sweet home in PG), I'd started cleaning. This house had been left unattended for almost a month or so. My mum would only visit this house to check that everything's alright and to take some stuff. With the house development site right opposite my house and the highway construction next to my housing area (my house is 2nd to a corner lot which means the hihgway is just few metres away from my house), the dust in my house is very intolerable by my nose. Im allergic to dust. Id been sneezing like crazy. macam nk tertanggal mata n hidung.

Reached that evening before berbuka. Bought food for berbuka from the bazaar ramadhan. Nyummy food! Honestly, BAzaar Ramadhan here in Johor is waaaaaaaaaay better than any Bazaar Ramadhan in KL! Serious shit! Ok, while waiting for the berbuka time, I just could not wait any longer to vacuum and mop d floor. Huh, my room is the main priority for the time being.

After breaking fast, I did a bit of cleaning. The cleaning session continued the next day- Monday, my siblings and I wash and scrub the porch floor from morning till noon. Damn exhausted! Mind you, it was still fasting month.

Around 3pm, the four of us went to the nearnnby Tesco and bought stuff to bake our kuih raya. We made a few kuih raya. That nite, we made Biskut coklat badam. The next day (Tuesday), we started baikng Kuih Sarang semut in the morning and only finished in the evening. Making Kuih Sarang Semut was very taxing. I went out to break fast with my former school mates and only came back around 10pm. While I was outing, my family made kuih siput at home. When I got home, I continued baking my Kek Batik. The next day (Wednesday), we packed our stuff to bring back to our kampung in Felda Taib Andak, Kulai je pun... then, my mum asked me to bake 1 more Kek Batik to bring back to Kampung. So, my bro had to buy all the ingredients.

That afternoon, my dad called my mum and said that there was a possibility that eid would fall the next day. --> which means, we had to balik kampung asap to prepare everything. My mum was sewing her baju raya stopped and decided not to wear that baju for raya. she was so tired and stressed out with the sewing machine. So, we balik kampung around 3pm.

Our raya preparation did not end there. As we reached rumah Atuk, Atuk Ayah dah bising suruh buat kerje bcoz blm start buat ape2 pun. Atuk kene stroke so he could not walk. If not, he would be the one running here and there buying stuff from warung, jadi supervisor checking that everything is in good shapes. This year, kesian atuk, he ould only membebel, advised people, and observed from far.

We peeled lotssss of onions, garlics, potatoes (sampai aku pun da bau macam bawang urghh), chop here and there, and my family continued weaving the ketupats. According to them, our family is the only family who could weav ketupat. the rest, yeah, a few of the pak cik n mak cik can. But not all. So, this year's ketupat bisness dapat kat family ku (setiap tahun pun mcm tu except for this year, Abah balik mlm raya so, anak2 n ibu ku je yg mengerjakan ketupat yg cecah sampai 200 biji tu).

All the hard work continued till the next day. A day before Raya, we'd cooked Rendang, Ketupat, Lepat, Kuah Kacang and Sambal Goreng. Pergh mengancam Ok! Perut ku berkeroncong bagai nak giler. Dah lah penat nak mampos! Our mak2 prepared Kari Ayam and Lodeh early morning of 1st Syawal while all the husbands and anak2 were still sleeping. I could not get enough rest and good night sleeps at kampung coz all the boys were hanging around in front of thhe tv. In my kampung, it's our culture that, the boys would be sleeping in the front hall (no tv, just a prayer area for men and some couches), the ladies would be sleeping in the middle hall (the main hall with tv), and the rooms- first come first serve basis, those who came first and put their stuff in that room would get the privacy of the room. Normally, my parents would sleep in one if the rooms. So I, I had to find any available space to sleep like the couch, or toto yg dah nipis serupa macam tido tak bertoto itu. Huhu.