The Third Year of Celebrating Eid in Hamilton, New Zealand.(part 1)

Time really flies! I didn't realize that we've been celebrating Eid for the third time here! I hope that this is going to be the last year of celebrating Eid here. I miss my family and friends back home. As we celebrated Eid on Monday, 21st September 2009, I had to wish my family members "Selamat Hari Raya" on the last day of Ramadhan for us here. huhu. I wore t-shirt when I was chatting with them on YM and my brothers and sister were surprised to learn that we were still fasting. We thought that we were going to celebrate Eid on Sunday 20th September 2009 as well, but FIANZ (Federation of Islamic Association of New Zealand) told us they couldn't sight the moon(tak nampak anak bulan kat sini). I've prepared satay sauce, rendang ayam (chicken in coconut cream) and nasi impit (cube rice) on Saturday. We even ate those dish that evening.

Raya here is not bad this year as we have more Malaysians here. The night before first raya, some houses hosted "takbir". Our house was the second last house. I just took out some raya cookies and a dates cake with tea. They(some of the men here) went to 6 houses all together.

On the first day of raya, we went to one of our friends house to perform Raya prayer. We had some food at home and took some pictures first at home. At my friend's house, we met most of our friends. It was as merrier as what we had in Msia before. After the prayer and the "salam"(shaking hands and seeking forgiveness) sessions, we had yummy food courtesy of the host and some others who brought some food. Here are some pictures taken there:








After we left that house, we went to Masters Clinic as I had to redo a blood test for the immigration purpose. So, we went there in our raya clothes and most of the other patients and the nurses stared at us. The nurse that took my blood samples liked my baju kurung (our traditional costume). I told her that we were celebrating Eid and we were wearing our traditional costume for the special occasion. (yelah diaorg pelik tengok baju warna-warni dan lain dari dress diaorg). Right after that, we went to visit our friends houses until about 3.30. We visited about 7 houses! (there were more houses but we were already full and tired). I also had to prepare some dishes for our open house on the second day. So, we decided to go to other houses the other days.
That evening, I prepared more satay sauce (using peanut), mee bandung sauce and cutting beef and chicken meat to prepare satay. We (my hubby, my SIL and I) prepared the dishes until midnight.




On the next day, (Tuesday, 22 September 2009), I had to cook 3 packets of spaghetti, cube rice and prepare the vegetables. My SIL and one of my friends, (K.Eija), helped me in cooking satay in the oven. I was kind of distracted when my hubby called me at 11 and asked to dressed up to go to our friend's house at 12. So, in a hurry, I bathed my daughters and changed their clothes and got ready by 12. We spent just about half and hour at my friends' houses. (we thought of going to one instead we went to two houses).








We started our open house at 4 and the first batch of guests arrived at 4.15 and more people came after that. It went well except for at the end, we ran out of satay and the mee bandung soup. I thought it was enough but well, maybe next time we have to make more. I was pleased that our friends liked our dishes and we were kind of busy topping up the dish few times. Hafizah was kind of cranky because she had cold and fever. I had to carry her all the time as she didn't want to play with other kids or be away from me. At about 7 o'clock, the last batch of guests left our house and we started to pack things up. That night, I had to cook another pot of soup to be eaten with spaghetti for our dinner. I've learnt that if we want to invite our friends here, we have to prepare more than two main dishes. Well, we are definately going to have another one during Eidul Adha.