Ramadan and Shawal in Terengganu: A Nice Activity to Experience

In this posting, I like to tell about how citizens of Terengganu  welcome the month of Ramadan (the muslim fasting month) and celebrating the first Shawal. In the month of Ramadan, Muslims in Terengganu were observing their fastings and pray solat terawih at local mosques.

Virtually all mosque holds program  breaking  of fast, congregational prayer, Quran recitation and Khatam Quran (finished reading the quran in a month), and qiamullail (praying at 3-4 am in the morning). Key mosques importing their imams from Saudi Arabia, Egypt or from Mahaad Tahfiz to lead the prayers. These imams recite Quran in their prayers and it will complete by end of Ramadan. "Majlis Menamat" (celebration of finishing the Quran recital 30 chapters) is normally done on the 17th Ramadan. This day is a public holiday in Terengganu.

Many people donate their food or money for the breaking of fast program. Some mosques offer take away rice porridge (bubur lambok) to the people.  Beside the mosque programs, the Ramadan Bazaar mushrooms. The bazaar sells variety of food, cakes, drinks etc. They are all located in the main residential areas or existing markets.

In this month too, ladies started to make kueh (candy, biscuits etc) to be used during the Raya celebration. Some even make business, selling kueh. The 30th day of fasting, people are busy buying and preparing for the day celebration of Hari Raya where there is no more fasting and everybody celebrates the first Shawal. The Terengganu folks prepared variety of food to serve their guests (neighbours and familiy and friends).on the day of Shawal.  So, the towns and cities will be jammed with traffic where people went on shopping spree to buy those ingredients or buy last minute on other items. 

At night of the Hari Raya eve, most houses are lit with oil lamp or colourful lights. This brings cheerfulness to the surrounding. Some even went further, burning the fire crackers and fireworks.

The next day, the first Shawal, the prayers are held at all mosques in the morning around 9 am.This time you can see many people flocking to the mosque (with children too). They came with beautiful new clothes. After the prayer, everybody escapes in thin air and the visiting family and friends start. By 10 am, the mosque will be deserted as everybody is visiting friends and families.

The first day of Raya is special. The mood is happiness and cheerfulness, meeting "lost" and "long time no see" friends and families. It is a hectic day if you want to visit all family and friend's  houses. You need to plan properly. This is the day when everybody has to end his fast.

The houses are really open. You can see people walk in groups and visit their neighbours and family members. Since you have to visit many houses, each visit is a very short visit. Some times you even do not bother to eat or drinks at their houses. However, this day most houses will have something to eat depending on the ability or capability of the owner. These include rice (of many types), pudding, ketupat (gluten), rendang, lemang (gluton), laksa, sate (grilled) and nasi himpit. The dried ones are biscuits, cakes and other tit-bits. This is quite a standard if you visit Terengganu homes at that time. 

Some houses even made official open house during Rari Raya period inviting friends and families. This is normally staggered during Shawal.

If you want to experience this episode, come to Terengganu during this time and you can appreciate better. I am sorry this episodes have no pictures. Happy travelling.

Using hands to eat in Terengganu

Fork and spoons or chop sticks are generally used while eating in most parts of the world. But if you come to Terengganu, do not be surprised when you see people using bare hands to eat. It is part of their tradition. Those days when fork and spoon are uncommon, they used their hands to take food into their mouth. In Terengganu, it is common to see people use his right hand (not the left hand) while eating. Using the left hand to take food into the mouth here is considered rude unless you do not have the right hand or your right hand is very dirty. Priority is to use the right hand.

If you want to experience eating using your right hand , do not use the fork and spoon. First you must wash your hand. Usually a small kettle is provided on the table. You just pour the water from the kettle and wash your hands. Then use your right hand to eat. For the first timer, it is not easy to use hands for eating especially when you eat rice and its gravy. I had seen many foreigners (who are not used to this style) failed to do it. 

A word of caution, if you want to take the gravy from other plate, do not use your bare hands. Use the spoon to scoop the gravy. Using bare hand will spoil the gravy. This etiquette must be observed.

They also use their hand to eat laksa (Terengganu version of spaghetti). Terengganu laksa comes with gravy . What they do was that they eat the laksa first and drink the gravy at the end. Nowadays, they use the spoon to assist in eating laksa. This means they eat laksa with gravy bit by bit. Happy trying.