Tradition

I know it sounds a bit cliche`, but after 23 years of celebrating Eid, i can`t help but notice some things that have become routines in both maternal and paternal sides of the family when we go a visting. It all depends actually on which nyai`s, wak`s and bik`s house you r going to( sorry for the wak kang language, i`m a throughbred javanese and proud of it! ). After the morning Eid Prayers, we usually go to the maternal granny`s and be the first persons mind you to set afoot there. One special gastronomic appetizer( or should i say meal?) that will be always be on the buffet table would be the very soft, gooey and chunky lontong that will never fail to satisfy my palatte.Combine that with sambal goreng that has large quantities of tetelan daging, u can fall into a deep, deep ecstasy.

But enough of the food, what i`m trying to discuss here is the mannerisms of both host and the guest that are coming to the host`s abodes Take for example, myself. I would always gobble and gobble down the food, wash it down with glasses of gassy drinks and sit down and play whetever gaming consoles there are, being oblivious to all the surroundings .That was when i was in my teenage years, but now i tend to be a bit of abang abang lobang and would talk to all my uncles, most of whom who are quite old and some even more older than my dad. They will always have a lot of topics to discuss from happy issues on how our bangladeshi brothers would show a sense of ukhuwwah on going to the mosques to mundane but interesting conspiracy theories on why our MM has not kicked the bucket yet. Telatah mereka ni kekadang mencuit hati, i would say.

Liquid consumption can come in all sorts of varieties, be it DIY ones or those now popular `whatever` or `anything` drinks. For some reason or another, Yeo`s Tetra Pak packet drinks would always be the number one choice for the abode of a certain long distance nyai of mine. It will always come in two flavours, red date and sugarcane. I would wonder in terms of logistics` replenishment, how many cartons he would buy every single year. Did i mention that he`s close to 80 years old? Sensing this, our family bought for him extra cartons of additional two flavors. His pearly whites were shown almost immediately.

No hari raya visiting would be complete without the ,hmm how should i put it, `asking for forgiveness` method? When most of us were young foolhardy kids, we tend to treat this as a form of getting the moolah and would go to such and extent that there would be such small sentences like ` Selamat Hari Raya!`, `Maafkan Saya` or the most direct of all ,' Cepat Lah Nak Duit RaYa!!!!!!!!!!!!'' . Alhamdulillah this year i managed to give short but sweet tazkirahs to my whole family regarding the true meaning of Eid. There`s one particular paternal 2nd degree nyai`s cousin`s house though , that amazes me. Every single year, the whole brigade would always make this place the last stop of our raya rendezvous as as expected everyone would be very haggard and weary that even getting a place to sit would suffice. So imagine that every forgiving session would take at least 2 min,multiply that by at least 15 nephews and nieces and each has a different dialogue depending on the age There was this one time that my cousin actually has mind somewhere in lala land when listening to the super duper long advice and had to be nudged. Some old dudes really have a lot of anecdotes to spare.

Today`s generation would rather have open houses so that they can accomodate a lot of people. Yeah i`m ok with that , in fact am being invited to couple this forthcoming weekend. But the spirit of ziarah menziarahi still must continue albeit leaving some things and keep it nice and simple always