What Hari Raya Means To Us

It’s the time of the year again, where family and friends gather to celebrate Eid, commonly known as Hari Raya Aidilfitri to us Malaysians. Aside from the whole traffic jam shenanigans, repeated questions of your career and relationship statuses, we still look forward for the Hari Raya as the time for a well-deserved break as well to catch up with friends and families near and far.

At Stampede we have our daily scrum meeting at 2 pm, of which we called The Blitz, where we update what had we been working on and our plans for the day as well as some harmless banters after that. It got us talking to how excited we are about Hari Raya, so I decided to throw a quick question,

What does Hari Raya mean to you?

Shaiful is looking forward to have Kuala Lumpur to himself

“Being born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, I am pretty much a city boy – also because my grandparents are no longer around, so I don’t really get the chance to celebrate Hari Raya in kampung. When most people go back kampung (going back to their hometowns), I look forward to empty roads and a more chill KL. Generally, my friends and families would visit each other in each other’s houses, catching up and stuff.

Another thing I really look forward to is our tradition of having open houses for the whole month of Syawal!”

Iwan is elated to spend Hari Raya in two kampungs

“This is my first year of marriage, so I get to experience the unspoken concern of deciding which kampung to spend in like other married couples do. Luckily, my wife’s family and mine live very close to each other, so we get to visit each other’s family as often as we could during the Hari Raya break.

Also, it’s good to meet friends and catch up, and get some break from work. Looking forward to come back to the office all recuperated.”

Dahlia plans to eat all day long

(I asked if she wants to change her answer, she replied with a firm, “no”.)

Shaza is grateful to have enough – and KFC!

“Me and Dov are not very particular in celebrating Hari Raya, mostly because every Hari Raya we would go back to my mother’s kampung in Negeri Sembilan. We are a big family, and have to meet every family members from all ages, so we have to socialise a lot. It is also the time of the year to meet my siblings face to face. Although we talk to each other a lot, my siblings and I live all over Malaysia – so it was fun to meet them again and bully each other, sometimes joined by my parents who are just as comical as we are.

Also, another thing you must know – my family and I have this unspoken tradition. On the night of second Raya, after all the food is finished no matter how much they were cooked, we would all huddle up together in a car, bantering over who squashed whom and went ahead to queue with the whole town to buy KFC bucket meals to share with the whole family.

Hari Raya also taught me to be grateful for what I have – and if I have more than that, then it’s a bonus. I think that’s how the world should work for everyone.

Being an introvert, usually I need a few days to recuperate after coming back to Langkawi after Hari Raya break.

Also, only on Hari Raya we get to see Dov in baju melayu, even only for a few hours in between Hari Raya prayer. It’s actually a rare sight!”

Zana is just happy to catch up with family

“I am an only child, but ever since I was small I had been very close to my cousins. Now that we are all grown up, where most of my cousins are all scattered around Malaysia due to family and career obligation, it is about the time of the year we get to meet each other again and catch up.

I think Hari Raya is the day when my mother is the happiest because she gets to spend so much time with family. So seeing her happy makes me happy – although that would probably mean sometimes I have to roll on the carpet in my baju kurung throwing a tantrum, “When do we get to go home?!” after she had uttered goodbyes but still been chatting with the relatives for yet another hour at least.

Also, I love it that I get to dress up 😉 And yes, echoing Dahlia, FOOD!”

What about you?

What does Raya mean to you? The comment section is all open for you – and if you want to echo my and Dahlia’s sentiment about food, oh yes feel free to!

With that in note, we at Stampede would like to wish everyone a blessed Eid and Selamat Hari Raya Maaf Zahir Batin. Enjoy your holidays, go easy on the food binge, and come back from the holidays all refreshed!