IPOH – Like the movie ‘Run All Night’, we stayed up all night preparing for Hari Raya as the celebration unexpectedly falls a day earlier than expected.
Little that we knew, we welcomed the month of Syawal today, instead of on Tuesday.
Like many others, at first I thought it was some kind of prank or a trick my friends were trying to pull in the WhatsApp group chat.
"Ya’ll kidding ni,” I said to them before one of them said "Tak tengok TV ke? (didn’t you watch the TV?)".
The next thing I knew, it was ‘panic Raya’.
Luckily we were at my husband's hometown in Manjoi before the announcement was made.
So, there we were running like headless chickens inside the house preparing the Hari Raya ketupat and rendang, on top of getting other preparations done.
Thanks to my mother-in-law, who happens to love gardening, we could just pluck the ingredients off freshly from the backyard.
From galangal to lemon grass, which were the most important ingredients for the rendang could be found just around the house.
Me, my husband and my mother-in-law took turns running in and out of the kitchen making sure the rendang did not burn.
Of course in this kind of situation, coffee was involved.
We woke up this morning with expensive eye bags due to this priceless experience.
The Hari Raya mood is definitely on this year after two years of restrictions.
However, it was a rather quiet one for us in Jalan Dahlia this morning as the other family members were unable to make it on time due to the unexpected announcement.
Despite the surprise, it was a joyful celebration for all.