Our Typical Eid Celebration

This Eid celebration falls on April 22, 2023. This year, Eid al-Fitr or Hari Raya is held twice, namely on April 21 and 22, because there are differences in the results of the calculations from the 2 largest Islamic organizations in Indonesia.

There was chaos as the issue growth become a hot topic on social media, but it died quickly because maybe the busy Hari Raya event in the real world had taken up much of their energy and time.

Hari Raya in Pandaan, my hometown, is quite crowded. At that time, many faces of young people and parents were quite calm ahead of the Hari Raya prayer series in the morning.

Across the main road where the prayers were held, you could see many nice cars with license plates from faraway areas; such as Jakarta, Bandung, Malang, and Semarang, lined up neatly as if welcoming us to the mosque.

For a long time, Pandaan as a regency city is the hometown of young people who go to big cities to build their careers. When they are successful and well-established enough, they return to their hometowns to reminisce on their old lives and interact with their loved ones.

This also happened in my family. Of the 4 children of Emak (our call for grandma), 3 of them live far from their parent’s house. As the third child from Emak, my mother comes to the house every year to bring gifts and her stories as a “mother” to us and the women in the neighborhood.

Sometimes, they tell stories about important issues such as children’s education, household, career, business, and politics. They often share stories about food, old friends, and new experiences to try.

After praying Hari Raya, we are usually busy preparing dishes and snacks that we will offer to guests at home. Mandatory food in Hari Raya is Opor Ayam with a typical recipe from Emak who has been in the catering business for a long time and also meatballs or “bakso” brought by our uncle from Surabaya.

After completing the food preparations, we continued by holding a Sungkem activity. Sungkem is an activity in which each family member apologizes to each other where the older person will sit and the younger one will take turns coming to his lap. Later both the young and the parents who took the lap would say apologies and good prayers to each other so that we would be even better in another meeting.

Sungkem is special this year because our family can all gather together. After Sungkem, we finished the Hari Raya by eating Opor Ayam and ended it by trying the snacks my Aunt cooked.

Furthermore, we also symbolically open the door, to signify an open house with guests, and visit our friends and family acquaintances to establish friendly ties. What’s unique is that this year is also the first time our family has come to Mrs. Ningsih’s house as Emak’s old friend from work.

Mrs. Ningsih or Bu Ningsih herself is the person who opened a well-known alternative health practice in Indonesia. If you try to Google his name, you will find a lot of information about how successfully she cured diseases that are difficult to cure with modern aids.

After completing the Silaturahmi activities, our family ended the Hari Raya usually by taking a rest to prepare for the next day. For this year, we also try to prepare ourselves to go to Pati to sowan to KH. AKN Marzuki, my father’s teacher. I enjoyed my time today, nicee!

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