Hari Raya Aidil Adha is celebrated by Muslims all over the world on the 10th of Zulhijjah (the last month of the Islamic calendar) every year, to mark the end of the hajj pilgrimage. Every year millions of Muslims journey to the holy land of Mecca to perform the hajj, and this is one of basic tenets of Islam. This year, the date falls on the 15 of October in the Roman Calendar.
In Malaysia, Aidil-Adha is commonly known as Hari Raya Haji or Hari Raya Korban. The word “Korban” means sacrifice and this is significant to the celebration as it also commemorates the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim (PBUH) to sacrifice his son Prophet Ismail (PBUH)as an act of obedience to Allah S.W.T.
Therefore, during Hari Raya Aidil Adha, it is customary for families or local communities to slaughter animals such as lambs, goats, cows, bulls or camels. The meat of the animal will be divided into three parts. The family retains one third of the share; another third is given to relatives, friends and neighbors; and the other third is given to the poor and needy.
Hari Raya Haji is basically the remembrance of the sacrifice made by prophet Ibrahim on his son. During this period, Muslim of all around the world will go to Mecca in Saudi Arabia to perform the Haj. Generally, Muslims who do not have any financial or physical constraints are required to pay a visit at least once in their lifetime to the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for the Haj pilgrimage event.
After the pilgrimage, for every Muslims, there will be a title of “haji” given to the men and “hajjah” given to the women. Therefore, Hari Raya Haji is too a celebration of the completion of the Muslims’ pilgrimage. During the visit to the holy city of Mecca, there are certain rituals that need to be performed. One of them is walking counter-clockwise seven times around the Ka’abah, a cube-shaped structure covered with a black cloth; it symbolizes the Muslim prayer direction.
Besides, there are also rituals like kissing the black stone at the corner of Ka’abah, moving back and forth between Al-Safe and Al-Marway, drinking from the Zam Zam well, standing at Mount Arafar, throwing stones and shaving their heads and sacrifice an animal before concluding the rituals of Hari Raya Haji.
A celebration for the end of Ramadan, which is the fasting month. During this period of time, it is when Muslims go back to their Kampung (village) to visit the elderlies. It is where the families gather and have a reunion feast. Hari Raya Puasa begins at the sighting of the moon on the day before the next month on the Muslim calendar, Syawal. The first moon of the month of Syawal is sighted by the religious elders in the late evening from several vantage points in Malaysia. The celebration begins the following day, ushered in by prayers at the mosque early in the morning, and also a visit to the cemetery to pray for the departed souls of their loved ones.
Lemang - glutinous
rice and coconut milk and cooked in a hollowed bamboo stick lined with banana
leaves.
Rendang
- a spicy meat stew originating from the Minangkabau ethnic group of Indonesia,
and adopted by Malay throughout archipelago. Rendang is traditionally prepared
by the Malay community during festive occasions.
Dodol- also known as sticky dodol, this sweet treat comes in different flavours such as coconut, durian, pandan and more. It is chewy, sweet and sticky of course! Dodol is made of coconut milk, palm sugar and glutinous rice flour. These ingredients are cooked together for up to five hours, while constantly being stirred.
Ketupat- These delicious packed treats are somewhat of a symbol of Hari Raya. Rice grains are filled inside weaved coconut palm leaves, and boiled till the rice inside is cooked. The locals usually have their ketupats with some delicious rendang or serunding.
Mee goreng - It is made with thin yellow noodles fried in cooking oil with garlic, onion or shallots, fried prawn, chicken, or beef, sliced bakso (meatballs), chili, Chinese cabbage, cabbages, tomatoes, egg, and acar (pickles).
Bandung, sirap bandung, or air bandung - is the name of a drink popular in Malaysia. It consists of milk flavoured with rose cordial syrup, giving a pink colour.
Date -14/October/2013
8.00 a.m. -
gathering and departed from UCSI university
8.30 a.m. -
arrived Kampung Hulu Langat Batu 16
9.00 a.m. -
having breakfast (nasi lemak) , preparing ingredients and
START TO COOK
COOK! COOK! COOK!
EAT! EAT! EAT!
PLAY! PLAY! PLAY!
7.30 p.m. - done the cooking & cleaning part, finally………back
to UCSI university
Our group has been
divided into 2 groups to in charge in 2 Malay traditional dishes. Two girl members
(Koh Siow Wei & Lo Sok Min) involved in ketupat group while the boy members (Lam
Chee Hau & Yap Yeow Yaw & Foong You Xiang) involved in dodol group.
At first, we do
not how to do and how to start the progress. Luckily, we have very kind
and funny mak cik, pak cik and our lecturer to teach us in doing different Malay traditional dishes.
We had learned so much from 0% until we all can carry the process ourselves during the preparation and cooking. Especially
our group was involved in two type dishes. This is very special experience to
us to learn how to made the Malay dishes.
Here are some people
involved in making dodol and ketupat.
Dodol is one type of Malay traditional food which is commonly served during festivals such as Eid ul-Fitr andEid al-Adha as sweet treats for children. The ingredient of dodol are glutinous rice flour, fresh coconut milk and gula Melaka. Normally dodol can last up to two months because of the gula Melaka. In Malaysia, dodol come with others flavor, such as durian, coconut, pandan leaf and so on. |
| Various Types of Dodol Shapes |
Short video on the process of cooking dodol
The process of making dodol begins by adding rice flour, sugar and coconut milk to a pan. The mixture is heated and stirred constantly. After the elements begin to come together and the sugar has been incorporated, flavorings and spices can be added to the liquid and simmered. During the entire cooking process, the dodol must be constantly stirred that avoid pausing in between. It would burned and spoiled the taste and aroma of Dodol. Once the dodol has cooked long enough and it is time to pour it out into a vessel to cool. The candy is poured out, leveled and allowed to cool completely. Once it has cooled, it is cut into strips, squares or diamond shapes. Dodol normally takes up to 9 hours to cook. As it involved a lengthy process of stirring, it was usually the men who would participate in the dodol-making.
After taking part in the process of stirring the dodol, it was quite a really hardcore job to stir the dodol for few of hours. We even take turn with other members to stir the mixture. The dodol became harder to stir when it almost done and sticky. Therefore we need 2 members to stir it constantly. The process of stir the dodol need stir it constantly to avoid its burn on the bottom of the wok. This is because, if the sugary mixture rests for too long over the heat without moving, it will scorch and the texture and flavors will be destroyed. In the latter stages of the boiling process, the dodol can become so thick that it will carry the pan along with it during attempts to stir, meaning it will take some effort and two hands to keep stirring. It was quite an unique experience that we first time involve in the food cooking of Malay traditional food. It was really a good chance to take part in this program for keeping in touch in Malay culture not only in architecture.
Where did the actual origin of the ketupat? Generally, ketupat is identical as special Eid dishes, the tradition of ketupat is estimated to come from when Islam entered the land of Java. Ketupat is famous not only in Malaysia but also in Indonesia, Philiphines, Singapore and Brunei. Also known as rice cake or rice dumpling, ketupat is made from rice or glutinous rice and then wrapped in woven palm leaves pouch. This ketupat is usually served with “Rendang” (dried beef of chicken curry), and also satay together with ground nuts gravy. The origin of ketupat passed down through the generations as it is believed that seafarers used to bring cooked rice together during their long sea voyages.
Short video on the process of cooking ketupat
Preparing ketupat starts with getting the leaves for making the pouch. The pouch is made up of two strips of palm leaves twisted and woven tightly together to ensure no rice spills out of the pouch. Once the pouch is ready, it is now time to fill it up with rice. Once the pouch filled up with the rice, the opening needs to be closed by tying the receptacles of the pouch to narrow down the opened joint. Then it is time to proceed with the boiling process. Time taken during the boiling process might vary depending on the amount of water and ketupat used. Once cooked, the ketupat will be lifted out of the cauldron and left aside to let it cool down. And TADAAAAA!! Ketupat is now ready to serve.
After taking part of making ketupat, it was a very great experience for us to keep touch to the Malay culture and their traditional food. The process of making ketupat is easy to be learned. Once the ketupat is ready, unwrap it and cut it into mouth size cube and dip it into rending or you can pour the lontong gravy into your plate and drool yourself with the tasty traditional taste passed down from generations to generations. With kids nowadays prefer fast food than traditional delights, it is our responsible to make sure that ketupat still exist in the future.
 |
| Different Steps of making ketupat |
Traditional malay clothing are still being worn until today even by the young generations. The practice of traditional clothes dressing is a form of respect to the elders and also to preserve or conserve the traditional culture of Islam and to revive the interest in Islam. The primary and the most common traditional Malay clothes are Baju Melayu for male and Baju Kurung for female. These traditional Malay clothes are commonly worn during special occasions like Hari Raya and Hari Raya Haji or when going to the mosque for praying.
Baju Melayu
Baju Melayu is normally worn with “songkok” and “samping”. The Malays will try to match these with the color of the Baju Melayu and the trousers.
Baju Kurung
It is famous among the female Malays because this cloth
covers the entire body except the palm to show politeness. Baju Kurung is
normally worn with “tudung”. It is common among students in school and for
praying session in the mosque.
Another traditional Malay cloth worn by the females which is originated from Indonesia. Baju Kebaya has a more slim-body cutting which fits the body compare to Baju Kurung which has a loose cutting. It is normally worn with “sarong”.
It is the combination of Baju Kurung and Baju Kebaya. It has the form of Baju Kebaya but the size of Baju Kurung. Baju Kebarung is not originated from traditional Malays but is created by the modern Malay society to satisfy the Malay community.
 |
| Everyone is wearing Malay traditional clothes even we are different races |
The Hari Raya Haji celebration at the Kampung has
been an unforgettable experience for us. A group of five of us took part in the
preparation and celebration of this special occasion. As Chinese, we get to
know more about the culture and traditional practices of the Malays after this
celebration. On the day before Hari Raya Haji, we paid a visit to the kampong
and help out the villages to prepare a variety of traditional Malay food. The
food includes, “ketupat”, “dodol”, “rendang ayam”, “rendang daging”, “lemang”
and many more.
Fortunately, our group is divided into two groups to
prepare two different traditional Malay food which are “ketupat” and “dodol”.
Eventually, we had a good opportunity to exchange experiences of making the
food among the group members. The “ketupat” making requires patience and steady
hand to get it done. Lecturers and local villagers are helpful and kind in
teaching us the process of making “ketupat”. Although it was the 1st
time we learned to make this food, but we show great interest in learning it.
The girls from our group (Koh Siow Wei and Lo Su Min) had managed to get
familiar with the making process after sometime. They made a huge success in
producing 30-40 “ketupat” together with other groups’ members.
Meanwhile, the boys from our group (Foong You Xiang,
Lam Chee Hau, Yap Yeow Yaw) are responsible with the “dodol” preparation. The
total time taken to make “dodol” is between 5-7 hours. It requires patience as
well as strength to stir it well enough to be cooked. We some help from the
local villages who taught the process of making “dodol” and also the technique
of stirring it to obtain a well-cooked “dodol”. The villagers are kind to us
and patient when teaching us. They explain clearly the steps and techniques of
making these traditional foods. They also took care of us well by being humble
in assigning us tasks to do.
After the preparation is done, despite the tiredness
and exhaustion, we were looking forward to the next day which is the
celebration of Hari Raya Haji. We got the chance of meeting the villagers and
enjoy the food that we have prepared together with them. Besides, some of us
wore the traditional Malay clothes to this celebration as a resemblance of
respect to the elderlies in the kampong and towards this celebration.
Furthermore, it was an exciting and wonderful day for all of us to have this
rare experience of knowing the traditional culture at the same time being part
of it. Everyone was satisfied with the celebration and the food. We had shown
great effort and our hard work paid off by receiving credits from the local
villagers and the head of kampong.
Other than that, we also got a chance witness the
sacrificing of cow which is commonly done during Hari Raya Haji. This act
symbolizes Prophet Ibrahim's readiness to sacrifice his own flesh and blood.
The meat is then arranged and packed to be distributed among the villagers
especially for the less fortunate.
The celebration ended with smiles and appreciations.
We were happy to have the chance to participate in this kind of celebration and
wish to have a second chance. After the celebration, we have a better
understanding in Hari Raya Haji and also the traditional culture of the
villagers. Furthermore, we are now more aware and appreciate of the traditional
culture and shows great interest in preserving this traditional heritage of
Malaysia.
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