Its almost the same every year. Morning prayers at the mosque, a light breakfast at home, the asking of forgiveness from my parents and lunch at the relatives'. The only difference this year is that its the first Raya without my grandmother. She passed away earlier this year.
Instead of having lunch at her house as is the custom, we were greeted by an empty house. None of the children had wanted to buy the house, and everyone was too nostalgic to sell it or stay in it. Weeds had over-run most of the beautiful flowers nenek ("grandmother") had so proud of. There was a thin layer of dust over everything. So how did i spend my Raya day? I cleaned my grandmother's house.
My mother and me
Mowed the grass, swept and moped the floor, and dust the carpets. It was hilarious. There we were: mom, my sisters and i (dad was in Australia) in our baju raya, sweating away, cleaning my grandmother's house. But it was extremely rewarding in a way - i could almost feel nenek's presence that day, and that's about as good a Raya gift that i could ask for.
The family all dressed up on Raya (minus dad who's in Australia)
