My trip to Malaysia Part 6 Hari Raya Aidil Adha

When we got back to KB it was time to celebrate Eid. On the first day we walked to the neighbourhood musalla instead of the mosque on the street since it was closer. I brought telekung (prayer garments for my daughters and I) and put them on when we got to the musalla. A strange thing in Malaysia is that most of the mosques have prayer mats in the corner that you spread out even though there is already a rug or you have to bring your own. So at this musalla a woman handed  me a prayer mat and I thought she was lending me hers but it turned out to be one that the musalla provided. The khutba was in Malay and I felt sad as the khutba is my second favourite thing about Eid besides the chants at the beginning of Allahu Akbar etc. The musalla was a very disappointing place; it was in the back of someone's business and there were holes in the ceiling and corrugated tin walls. I guess no one really invests in these places as there are already so many nice mosques. As for the khutba, it wasn't written by the imam but given out by the gov't. A friend told me that most mosques are like this but some do write their own. I was glad to hear that because otherwise it sounds like a dictatorship. At the end I said assalaamu Alaikum to the women and to their utter surprise Selamat Hari Raya. Guess they didn't expect an orang putih to know that! Then we walked home and since the cow was to be slaughtered the next day we had arranged for a goat to be slaughtered for my daughter's aqiqah. Even though she was 12 its never too late to do it. Family and neighbours came. It felt odd for me because I really wanted to introduce myself as the mother of the daughter having the aqiqah but since I can't speak malay and wasn't even sure if that was proper protocol I stood awkwardly in the background. I was wearing a white abaya and a cream hijab with flowers from IDH. All of our family was wearing the same colour as is the new trendy custom in Malaysia. Dh chose the colour. My daughters all had white baju kurung and the boys baju melayu. Although I found it nice to have all the in-laws there I did miss my kids back home (5 of them and my granddaughter and son-in-law and daughter-in-law). I also missed the decorations and Canadian style baked treats. Although cupcakes have now become a trend in Malaysian and they are nicely decorated the taste leaves something to be desired.

 On the second day of Eid my sister-in-law arranged to get a cow slaughtered. We were all invited to come and watch but only dh and my brave 8 yr old daughter went. After this we went to visit different brother and sister -in-laws. One brother-in-law lives in the house that I used to live in which was my parents-in-laws but they have passed away in the interim. It was odd to come back and see the changes; no more chickens, trees cut down and a house being built in the back for my brother-in-law. All the memories came flooding back. The last house we went to of one of the brother-in-laws had so many yummy treats including chocolate bars which are expensive in Malaysia that it started to feel more like Eid to me. I didn't find Eid very festive there at all and dh said its because people don't really make a big deal out of Eid-ul-Adha compared to Eid-ul-Fitr. Apparently they don't even give out money on the second eid but the kids and I were unaware of that so they mentioned it and the relatives took pity and gave them some. It made the kids feel special since they knew their brother had received the same thing when he had gone before.