"Kosong-kosong?"

obligatory journal 077

Last week of fasting & Eid Fitr celebration retrospective

... I've been meaning to do this ever since the last post but just couldn't find the time until I accidentally forgot about it, until now that is.

The last week was much of the same but it is a tradition (for my family at least) to do the annual house cleaning days before Raya came, from washing the carpets to washing all the tiled surface (at least at the front). You should always be at your best self when fasting but there was an incident whereby my usually quiet father just lashed out to me because I didn't clean it the way that he wanted to. It was really demeaning the way he spoke and I just couldn't help myself from hating the following cleanup and cursing when he was out of earshot. Anyway, it was cleaner the way he wanted to but I just wish he could've teach me in a much more supporting manner...

Well, that was over and done with and the morning of Syawal came with the males waking up and had to go and do solat sunat raya and then while this might be a Malay tradition, it's in the spirit of Raya whereby we will salam with every family member (shaking hands?) and forgive each other. Then we will go to other relatives' houses and do the same with them. We call this beraya and the journey together with friends to their houses as baraan which I hadn't gone on one for awhile now.

This year's first day was the busiest comparatively as we visited six houses across the rural area of Kuala Selangor and thankfully I didn't have to go on anymore after that. The month is long and while the festive feeling has dissipated, people will still go beraya at the third or fourth week of Syawal when they have free time or could schedule the trip together with the others. I would love to go one myself but since I've lost touch with a lot of my former friends (I am an introvert after all), maybe I'll just wait at home for them to come...

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Well, that's all folks! Thank you for your time and please do come back for my future posts! :-)