Better Than Never, huh?

Once upon a Raya. Twice upon the dullness. Thrice..

WE, OF COURSE, DON'T HAVE Boxing Day for Hari Raya, unlike Christmas. Boxing Day is the day after Christmas where all shops sell their stuffs at a very low price in order to clear their stocks (but I don't think it's practiced here, or is it?). Simply, a day to where the sellers go lelong, and the shoppers go borong. I guess Boxing Day wouldn't work for Raya, for some obvious reasons you can think of. We, however, has practiced 'boxing night' quite successfully for a very long time.

Najmi wanted to do some very last-minute baju Melayu shopping, so after dropping by at my Wan's place at PJ (in which Haziq experienced his first takbir rumah ke rumah session of his life) and after an earlier last-minute shopping at OU (in which I nearly didn't get anything), we decidedly went to PKNS. Having low expectations in the first place as it was already late midnight, I was surprised that the place is still vibrant and full of people. Well, wow!

It's a good thing because I get the chance to feel the Raya atmosphere that was, well, lost! Najmi got himself a pair of baju Melayu at a very good price. I went on to buy a lemang, some serunding and some rendang for the next day.

I love this tradition of selling things late at night even on the eve of Raya. I don't know how much this Raya has contributed to the nation's economy, but this whole lelong thing -- or should we say Raya's own version of Boxing Day -- is totally worth it. One, it caters to last-minute shoppers, of course and two, it brings Raya to city-folks like me who have wondered where Raya has gone to this year.

Where is it anyway?

Yep, where. Not when. Okay, so before you preach about how fantabulous-licious your Raya is, I advice you to not even think about it. Unless if you're a schoolkid. Even schoolkids aren't given enough break for this Raya. I mean, you guys have PMR and SPM after this holidays, right? Meanwhile we obviously have exams coming up too. I even have friends already finding themselves back to their colleges, some still here are rushing up to their assignments. For many of those overseas, it's a beginning of a new semester thus it's quite vital for them not to go back. Even for our parents, many are in the middle of their work! Shah Alam is only empty for a few days. If you dismiss those who aren't balik kampung, that is.

Do a counter-check, and you'll find that most kampung gatherings are not complete.

"It's the worst Raya, man.." says Edzmir. We ended up at Burger King after a series of frustrating, failed beraya attempts made to some people's houses today. At the houses we did, the borak-borak lingers around the same exchange of thoughts about how this year's Raya is failing us.

"Dulu kita Raya kat sini jugak, tapi tak adalah boring macam ni?" An unanswerable question.

Yusra said it's too short a holiday. People are still spending Raya with their families at this time, she suggested. I do think it's true. Relatives' open houses are overlapping with those of friends', each other rushing towards this Monday's deadline where everybody's already returning to their studies and works. As for the peers, not so many are going to return home for the upcoming Syawal weekends until November's semester break, which makes things duller. For those having an extra week or two for the Raya break like Haziq, well, they'll end up with nothing else to do as nobody else is around (except for studying, that is).

Nonetheless we've had our Raya this year, and we all know how it went on. Thank God, we're done. At the same time, I'm waiting for Raya to move past the busier months. That'll be many years from now, but God-willing, I hope it'll worth the wait. Maybe at that time we'll find ourselves enjoying it again.

Or maybe we just need more Boxing Days.

PHOTO 1. A woman browsing through scarves sold at Kompleks PKNS, Shah Alam on the eve of Hari Raya, October 1. Muslim traders all over Malaysia selling Raya-related merchandises go low on their last day of sale, causing people still thronging to do last-minute shopping even though they're only hours away from the dawn of Raya. 2. A kakak waiting for her shop's customers. 3. Baju Melayu, prices cut-down, up for grabs! 4. My..my. All pictures captured Oct 1, 2008. No edits. More of them at Flickr!