I was on the phone with my mother today and she was telling me how her Raya went. It sounded like she had guest after guest after guest visiting her over the weekend. Can you believe one family actually chartered a bus, kind of like Bus Charter NYC, for this visiting occasion. Not just to my mother’s place of course but to visit all their other relatives as well. I guess it’s much economical than taking taxis or driving individual cars. It also helped that one of the brothers was also a driver for the public bus service in Singapore! I wonder where they actually park the bus while they were visiting. ..hmm…I forgot to ask!
Raya for me in Malaysia is really very quiet especially since most of our family and friends all went back to their respective home state. It was really a culture shock to me when I first moved here. Back in Singapore, I would dress up for the first day of Hari Raya, go visiting relatives and friends till the wee hours. Here, after visiting my in-laws, it straight back home. The visiting actually happens the second or even the third weekend when there would be invitation to “open-houses” so much so that sometimes we have to decline some invites.
I guess I’m so used to it by now that it doesn’t bother me much but I do still miss the excitement of the whole “first day’ thing.
Cheerio…
