Practical Guide to Malaysia and Malaysians

Hari Raya Aidilfitri is one of Malaysia’s biggest celebration, celebrated by Muslims as a reward for successfully fasting for one month during Ramadhan. On Hari Raya day (which is this coming tuesday 24th October 06), families would put on colorful traditional Malay clothes and visit homes of relatives and friends. However, there’s a unique chronology of how it is celebrated in Malaysia, as follows:

1. About one month before Hari Raya, coach tickets, airplane tickets and other tickets for public transportation will be fully booked. Transportation companies will start to accomodate extra vehicles to accomodate the millions of people who work in the city, who wants to celebrate Hari Raya at their home town or village.

2. About 2 weeks before Hari Raya, the police and transport department will start

announcing vehicle monitoring operations on federal streets and highways, start planning speed traps and warn people to drive carefully. You got that right, accidents are exponentially occurs during this festive season. People will start buying new curtains for their homes, people will buy traditional cookies like crazy (which will be served to guests on Hari Raya day), and start servicing their automobiles to prepare themselves for that long journey back home.

3. Two days before Hari Raya, the traffic starts building up away from KL, dispersing magnanimously throught the North, South, East and West of Malaysia. A journey which normally take 6 hours would take 13 hours due to traffic jams.

4. On Hari Raya morning, the men would go to the mosque to pray, while most women

would prepare a variety of lavish and colourful breakfast meal where all close family members would enjoy afterwords. When the men come home after prayers, wives would seek forgiveness from husbands and vice versa, children would seek forgiveness from their parents, well…, basically everyone seeks forgiveness from each other. About 20 to 30 relatives would group in one house catching up on the latest gossip and chatter. The kids would be playing and running around, happy to meet their long lost cousins.Oh, and big cities like Kuala Lumpur would be extraordinarily empty. You can lie down and take a nap on the supposedly busies highway.
5. The second day (and generally everyday for one whole month), everyone would be visiting homes of relatives and friends. Each house would have a grand meal. If they visit 5 houses in 3 hours, they would eat 5 heavy meals. It’s all about food here people.

6. The 4th or 5th day, people start going back to the city, causing another massive traffic jam, and resume their normal busy hectic life.

Happy Hari Raya!!!!!