Family Celebration : Ramadhan

Family Celebration: Ramadhan

Today, I’m going to be talking about my family celebration. The celebration that I picked is Ramadhan.     Ramadhan is a muslim celebration that most muslims celebrate after they have finished fasting.  My family celebrates it every year, but there is one specific Ramadhan I’ll never forget.

Ramadhan/ Idul Fitri is very important, fun to my family and me. It’s because it means that we’ll get to have sleepovers, we can pray and cook together. We mainly do these things the night before the big celebration. Since my family is super religious, I never missed a day of Ramadhan and fasting month. Honestly I don’t mind because I love having Muslim celebrations. The Ramadhan that stood out as the most memorable was when I was 10 years old in 2013. It was August, I knew it was a great day. My family and me woke up at 5am. We were getting ready for Sholat Ied, or it could be Ied Pray. Ied is a pray where Muslims in one area gather and pray together to thank God for giving us another month of blessing (Ramadhan). My family and me went to a local mosque that fits about 600-1000 people. It was very crowded but it’s not humid. People are walking to find their spot. It was very crowded but I thank God that it’s crowded. That means people haven’t forgotten about Ied. After that, chaos, we sat down and listened to different people talking about their 30^th, 40^th even 1^st Ramadhan. It was touching because some talk about their last Ramadhan with their mom. When I came home I saw all my cousins, aunts, uncles & even my nieces home. I was shocked and very surprised. They came because it was out first Ramadhan without our grandma. My grandma passed away in the spring of 2012. It was very hard, that’s why we decided to get through it together. We sat down and talked about how our fasting has been. Usually my grandma cooks first Ramadhan but now it’s my aunt. Her cooking was just as good. Before we eat, we pray to our loved ones. The food is different every year but this year, we had fried chicken, lungs, soup, beef, corn and spicy dim sum. I ate it all. Usually after we eat, we all go to out gradparents and great grandparents grave yard. Its sad, very sad. We all pray to them and sat we miss them. We go back home and I remember my mom told me there will be a surprise. I asked her and she said we are going to Bali.

We went to Bali to go visit my mom’s step sister, that by then would be the age of 42. She passed away just a month after the last Ramadhan last year.Straight after we showered, we went to the airport. Our plane was boarding in the afternoon and we were going home at 10:00pm Bali time. Since after Ramadhan/Idul Fitru is all about grief, not visiting her is not an option. On the flight to Bali, I remember that me and my cousin played hide and seek. Our plane was dead empty even though it has a high season month. It was so fun. We even made one of my uncle’s played with us. We finally touched down in Bali. It was so bright and hot. We went and called out driver in Bali to pick us up. On the way to the graveyard, I kept thinking “why is there a rainbow when it hasn’t rained at all?” I was 10 so I didn’t understand. I thought it was a sign that my aunt was happy to see me. We finally arrived and saw her grave. It was so floral that we thought that someone has been here. Someone had, It was my step cousin. We went and prayed to her. We prayed to her saying that we ate at Nannys Pavillion. Its an amazing restaurant. We went and ate her favorite food ever, lasagna. Just after that, I remembered that Ramadhan was over. I’m glad that I have Ramadhan every year.

That’s my most memorable Ramadhan so far, it was a year full of sadness and tears but my family are the right people to talk with when I’m sad. For me, it was memorable because it’s the first Ramadhan without my grandma. It was very hard, but I got trough it. My family and me never experience a day of fasting or Ramadhan without my grandma. Even after that Ramadhan, my family and I had with her. That’s my most memorable celebration, thank you.