Today, the Muslim community celebrates Hari Raya Aidilfitri, signifying the end of the fasting month. A day greeted with great joy, it begins with early morning prayers at the mosque followed by a visit to the graves of the dearly departed. Families will tehn gather at home where they will forgive and forget past quarrels starting with the younger members who ask their elders for forgiveness, to "salam" , then kiss the hands of the elders as a sign of respect. Following some time together as a family, the great tradition of open house will start, with relatives and friends visiting and enjoying plenty of traditional Malay delicacies served. It is not unusual to see houses decorated with festive lights. Hari Raya cards and ketupat casings.
Like other Muslim families, Jamilah Shukri and her family looked forward to celebrating Hari Raya. I had dropped in at her boutique, Anggun Collection to see her latest collection and what was in fashion this Raya. While showing me around her boutique, Jamilah reminisced about Raya in her childhood days.
"Fashion in those days was simple. Our parents would go out and buy new clothes for the family. It was not uncommon to see families wearing matching outfits and colours. One family will be wearing red, another green. Nowadays the young ones have their own money to buy their own clothes for Raya, so they buy according to their own fashion preference. Having said that, there are still families who have a theme colour added into their Raya clothes," she said.
Back when she was young girls, people only learn the actual date of Raya the night before. Therefore, most of the preparations for Raya only begun on the eve of the celebration. Families and their children would wait excitedly for the announcement.
"I remember after the announcement was made, the village would come alive. The cooking and cleaning would begin. We didn't have fridges back then so we couldn't prepare food early as it would go bad. Everything was made from scratch as there was no such thing as made-to-order in those days. My fondest recollection was chasing chickens around the village to be slaughtered. Imagine the commotion in the village with us running after the chickens! Some would fly away to escape. It was as if they knew they would be slaughtered," she laughed at the memory.
She recalled not sleeping much on the eve of the celebration. Her mother would stay up to cook all night with sounds of pots and pans clanking in the kitchen. Throughout the house, the sound of hammering can be heard throughout the night as her father would go around the house fixing what needed to be mended. In the days prior to Raya, Jamilah and her siblings' feet were measured with a broom by their father before he went out to buy them new shoes.
Another memory was the tradition of placing at the head of the table a cake called "kek kepala meja".
"Every household would have one. It was tradition. Only on the seventh day it will be eaten. I don't think it is practised nowadays," Jamilah sighed.
Growing up in Kampung Panglima Seman Lama, Jamilah recalled how Raya preparations and celebrations were a communal event. On the morning of Raya, everyone from the village will bring food to the surau and eat together. "We knew who always made the best dishes and would look forward to eating their food. There was the spirit of gotong-royong (working together) in those days which is not so common now."
Like today, the tradition of open house was practised then too. Jamilah said as children they would compete to see how many houses they can visit in a day. According to her they would use matchsticks to count how many houses they visited.
"It was one matchstick per house. We could do up to 70 houses! I was 13 years old. I remember walking the whole day from one village to another and did not get tired. Every house was open for visitors. And we didn't cheat with the matchsticks either. Nobody cheated in those days," she pointed out smilingly.
Jamilah added that these days, many open houses would be by invitation only and some prefer to invite only family and close friends. Coming from a big family, visiting every family member is not an easy task for Jamilah. So, this year, she and her family will gather at her homestay in Santubong on September 19 to celebrate Raya. It is a day that they all look forward to, not just to share with family but also friends who are invited.
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| Jamilah and her family in the early 1970s. Jamilah is standing 2nd from right, back row |
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