{"id":2608,"date":"2020-07-08T16:00:42","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T08:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/?p=2608"},"modified":"2020-07-08T16:01:46","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T08:01:46","slug":"a-different-kind-of-raya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/2020\/07\/08\/a-different-kind-of-raya\/","title":{"rendered":"A Different Kind of Raya"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

COVID Companions is a series of creative pieces featuring snippets of life during COVID-19, with a special focus on the other individuals or creatures who are keeping us company during quarantine, lockdown, \u2018circuit breaker\u2019, or whatever your equivalent might be.\u00a0<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It was the first day\nof Hari Raya Aidilfitri, marking the end of Ramadan in the Islamic calendar; an\noccasion to celebrate the end of a month of fasting, as well as the\nintrospection, self-awareness, and self-discipline that hopefully came along\nwith it. In this succeeding month of Syawal, Malay Muslims in Singapore\ntypically visit family and friends decked out in varying styles and renditions\nof traditional wear, feast on home-cooked dishes borne out of recipes passed\ndown through the generations, and seek forgiveness from one another – all in\nthe spirit of strengthening kinship ties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
An empty playground on a public holiday. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But Ramadan and Syawal this year were unlike any other in the past. There were no mass prayers in mosques and void decks that would have normally been packed to the brim by devotees young and old. Colourful lights hung above the streets in Geylang, unusually devoid of the usual crowds combing through the annual Ramadan bazaar. Grandparents had to make do with seeing the faces of their children and grandchildren on a screen in place of family gatherings. In the midst of a global pandemic, Hari Raya took on a quieter turn as jalan raya <\/em>took place at home over Zoom calls. Yet, my Instagram and Facebook feeds were flooded with family portraits, screenshots of video calls, and TikTok videos, with people smiling and dancing away in their colourful outfits. Deep down, I felt a sense of pride and gratitude for being part of a community who didn\u2019t wallow in self-pity while being stuck at home on a special occasion; but instead who knew how to have fun while reclaiming what the Circuit Breaker could have easily taken away – social connections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
After trying out this hopscotch court, I’m certain it is meant for tall people. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My parents woke me and\nmy brother up for congregational morning prayers in our living room, during\nwhich my dad delivered the khutbah raya <\/em>that he found on the MUIS\nwebsite. Shortly after, was a scheduled Zoom call with the maternal side of our\nextended family, including members living in Brunei and California. Some were\ndressed in their raya <\/em>outfits from top to toe, others from the waist up,\nand a handful still lay on their beds in pyjamas. In between the occasional\nawkward silences, people talking over each other, and screams of \u201cWhere\u2019s <insert\na baby\/toddler\u2019s name<\/em>>?\u201d were exchanges of festive greetings. Selamat\nhari raya, maaf zahir dan batin.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Flavoured drinks, especially fizzy ones, are usually served to guests during Hari Raya. I wonder if the shelves in our neighbourhood mama shop were this full in previous years. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the afternoon, my parents, my brother, and I got ready to take our yearly family portrait in our baju kurung<\/em>. My and my mother\u2019s two-piece baju kurung Pahang<\/em> were made of similiar kain songket <\/em>of differing colours and patterns. The baju kurung telok blangah<\/em> top that my father wore shared the same maroon colour as my brother\u2019s baju kurung cekak musang <\/em>top. As in past years, the absence of a tripod in our household meant that we had to find other means of setting up our camera. Instead of the ladder, this time round, we decided to stack four big cushions on top of one another – and thankfully, it worked. Family tradition dictated that the customary act of seeking forgiveness follow our photo-taking session. Each family member sought forgiveness for any (or rather, every) misdeed done to the others on a one-to-one basis. This was typically also the time when working adults would hand out duit raya <\/em>to children, youths, and the elderly. While I fall under the category of \u2018working adult,\u2019 my status as the youngest in the family warranted the green packet I received from my brother. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A bird we don\u2019t see every day pseudo-camouflaged in with the trees and colours of the multi-story carpark in the background. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Soon after, as I was\nabout to change back into my T-shirt, my brother poked his head into my room.\n\u201cWe\u2019re dressed nicely\u2026 What a waste to change now. Do you want to follow me,\nwalk around the neighbourhood? We can take pictures.\u201d He asked. I took my\ncamera out of my dry box before donning a face mask, and off we went. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe bond over the\nweirdest things,\u201d my brother uttered underneath his mask as we walked to the\nmama shop three blocks away from ours. \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d I asked. \u201cIf people\ndidn\u2019t know us, they\u2019d think we\u2019re worlds apart from each other. But\nultimately, we like the same things, like doing what we\u2019re doing now. We\u2019re\nvery alike.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The grass has grown considerably longer during the Circuit Breaker, accompanied by an abundance of wildflowers. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I couldn\u2019t agree more\nwith him. From our educational paths to our current jobs, from our friend\ngroups to how we spend our time on weekends, there appears to hardly be any\noverlap between my brother and me. Yet, there is almost nothing we don\u2019t feel\ncomfortable confiding in each other. Conversations at home can last for hours\nwithout feeling like time has passed. Since the Circuit Breaker started, our\nminds have been occupied with topics surrounding hip-hop (of which we are both\nbig fans), as well as the Black Lives Matter movement, skincare routines (with which\nwe both face difficulties), and insects. My brother recently started a new job at\npest management company, which requires him to deep dive into the insect\nkingdom. In these past few weeks, stories of clearing up cockroach\ninfestations, rectifying mosquito breeding grounds in private gardens, and\nending work later than usual to remove a beehive from a public area often echo\nthrough the walls of our flat. During this time, we also started taking notice\nof six-legged creatures that inhabit our home, like the small moth that often\nmakes an appearance in our bathroom, and the lizards that prey on the ants,\nleaving their faeces in the most indiscrete of places. Though I unfortunately\nflinch at the sight of creepy crawlies, my brother has taught me that these\nsmall critters we encounter every day, along with the social systems that\nenable their survival, are truly an impressive lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The fat and fluffy cat that lives in our void deck.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps many of life\u2019s daily mundanities contain a world of imagination and unexpected joy to be unveiled. This was especially true during the Circuit Breaker, when it was common to spend hours on end staring at a screen instead of our surroundings. So when my brother and I had our little jalan raya <\/em>photoshoot around our estate, the fallen trees, overgrown flowers, and closed playgrounds were indeed sights to behold, bearing witness to our zeitgeist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

With a background in Anthropology, Ilya Katrinnada<\/strong>‘s geeky interests lie in the intersections of creativity, community, and education. She is particularly keen to learn more about cultural hybridities and post-disaster arts. An arts programmer by day and amateur ukulele player by night, she enjoys expressing her thoughts through writing and photography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COVID Companions is a series of creative pieces featuring snippets of life during COVID-19, with a special focus on the other individuals or creatures who are keeping us company during quarantine, lockdown, \u2018circuit breaker\u2019, or whatever your equivalent might be.\u00a0 It was the first day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri, marking the end of Ramadan in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[531],"tags":[527,526,525,564,528,529,565],"class_list":["post-2608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid-companions","tag-circuitbreaker","tag-covid19","tag-covidcompanions","tag-hariraya","tag-lockdown","tag-quarantine","tag-siblings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2608"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2629,"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2608\/revisions\/2629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}