Friday 31 July 2015

Not Your Typical Raya - Part 1

Our Raya morning began with my FIL knocking on our door to wake us up.

Or so I thought...

They've actually showered, were all dressed up and ready to drive down to the Mosque in Dato' Keramat for our morning Eid Prayers. 

Looking at my phone, the time was early 6'ish. Say what now?!

So both husband and wife, rushed to get ready for Raya prayers and visits to relatives' graves.

Sampai-sampai, laaaaar, the prayers won't start until 9am. There was even time for us to visit Husbie's relatives' graves next to the mosque before prayers. 

Heading into the graveyard, it was a totally different and humbling experience for myself. Lining all the way along the inroads in the graveyard were plenty of homeless and poverty-strickened people begging. Of course, some you can distinguish from the usual scammers but most I see are genuine people in dire straits. Ya Allah! Aku syukur with what you have blessed me. Walaupun I complain or mumble a lot about my problems and kepayahan or kesukaran, I am still thankful that my family and I are strong and better off to deal with the ujian you've given us.

Done with prayers, and with a few hours to spare before Friday prayers, we went to another area to visit another plot of family graves. There, in a parking lot in front of this cute purple mosque, my in-laws took the opportunity to take pictures. I of course declined a few times with my non-matching tudung and zero make-up. Maybe since my in-laws have only sons, they don't really understand the need for a girl to be pretty on Raya for herself and her husband. Don't get me wrong. I took several pictures with my in-laws but it's not my best. Plus, they prefer taking pictures among themselves anyway and I am better off being the camera man/woman.

Our family baca lah Yasin for loved ones and I kumpul extra pahala by plucking the flowers off its stems in the plastic bag. After our bacaan Yasin and flowers strewn on the already tidied up graves, we made our way back to the parking lot.

We had an hour plus plus before Friday prayers. Everybody was hungry. I was sweaty with no make-up and was in urgent need to use the washroom. To boot, Husbie left the nicely packed Raya money packets at the resort. ADUUUHHH! Whilst getting ready, he mistook my queries about the Raya packets as verification that I've kept them in my bag. Padahal, he was the one in charged of it and I was not even aware of where he kept it the night before.

In-laws proposed that we used their money first but then we wouldn't be able to give the amount of money as planned. Plus, all those carefully laid out raya packets would be better off given to relatives on the day itself rather than main passing-passing for later. Especially when, as Husbie estimated, that the family plan to visit all Penang relatives on the first day of Raya itself. 

So, in Husbie and my case, we opted to go back to the resort...to freshen up and retrieve the Raya packets.

My in-laws went ahead to his cousins' house.

The pro here is that both of us had the chance to freshen up. Kasi jugak I chance berdandan and look pretty for our second Raya together as Husband and Wife. Throughout the rush, we all didn't manage to take a proper Raya family picture or picture of ourselves. Here, I had to put my foot down. By hook or by crook, I nak gambar of the two of us elok-elok and muka tak melekit. Tak kisah lar pun if SELFIE/WEFIE!


Cita-cita for a picture of the two of us on Raya morning/noon tercapai jugak. Albeit, a bit late and baju tak nampak full ensemble. I take what I can get.

*Read about how I cried on Raya evening from all the stress of Raya Day 1 in Part 2 of this post*

~~~~~ Jeng Jeng Jeng~~~~~


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