Album for 3rd Raya... enter the JB folks

Continued from Living up to the family Raya tradition....

The following the day which is the 3rd day of the Raya celebration we began to receive serious visitors...

Not that we didn't receive any the previous day it's just before this it's mainly the closest members of our extended family, brothers and sisters to my mum and their children and granchildren coming.

The third day of Raya which was a Sunday, we were joined by the family of my late grandmum's youngest sister from Johor Bahru.

Unlike our family who have lost both my grandfather and grandmother, the JB family still got a member of my grandfather's generation, the husband of my late grandaunt...

If our family consist of 3 generations they still have 4...

Anyway it is normal for our kith and kins to come in packs and the JB folks came with no less than 5 cars, at least that's what I saw before having to concentrate on extending the hospitality.

Here's a pix as they were about to leave almost an hour later.

My wife and baby Al-Rasyid in the fray...

That's the husband to my late grand-aunt from JB. My generation calls him Tok Su Sehat. Being 86-year-old he is one of 3 or so relatives from his generation to still survive. Oh, I still have a few other granduncles surving but that is from my mum's paternal side. For the record Tok Su Sehat is from mum's maternal side which included a certain 93-year-old Tok Musa, the eldest surviving person in mum's village in Muar.

As usual, even the bye-byes take some time, probably more than 15 minutes.

It is customary to shake everyone's hands and with more than 40 people present from my extended family including friends and about 30 from theirs that's like 1200 (40 x 30) times shaking hands plus the relevant last words before goodbye...

This is Tok Su Sehat with my dad...

Soon my auntie Cik Peah joined the fray...

My mum in the picture...

By this time part of both families have joined in...

As the JB folks left some decided to continue with their own businesses... mainly having a rest.

There. Things might have quietened down but we still have enough numbers to shake the roof... :]

Living up to the family Raya tradition...

Continued from A Raya family outing with the monkeys in Tanjung, Muar. On to the night after which is still on Saturday 11th September 2010 but already considered the 3rd day of Raya or Syawal because the Islamic calendar starts a new day after dusk.

There was a small gathering of no less than 30 people gathering at my parents place in another part of Muar.

Since about 10 years ago or more, it has been a family custom for the extended family, my mum's siblings and spouses with their children and grandchildren to gather in a circle where the young have to make presentations such as comic sketches and singing to get their share of Duit Raya, the money given by often senior relatives to the rest.

Normally we managed to gather at least 50 family members, a number which could shoot up to 100 and more. But for this year less then a third showed up at the same time in Muar. For the record, there were those who came to the house earlier during the day but did not stay on long enough for this meet.


As a cousin and his family were busy planning his wedding in the Klang Valley scheduled for the following weekend some thought it is better to meet up there. The situation was such that my mum told us there would not be the usual gathering with performance for this Raya, that is until some family members surprisingly turned up at this house to our delight! :]

Al-Rasyid and the old Muar railway

Continued from A Raya family outing with the monkeys in Tanjung, Muar.

Next we went to another part of Tanjung where lies this old locomotive head.

For the record Muar used to have its own railway network which started operating about 100 years ago... before it was disbanded a few decades later. Al-Rasyid looking annoyed after being forced to pose... hehe...

The railway network is known as the Muar State Railway (M.S.R.). Note that Muar was considered as a state of its own before being turned into a district in the state of Johor (let me dispense with the Anglicised spelling Johore ya...).

A Raya family outing with the monkeys in Tanjung, Muar

OK. Now we move on to what happened during the Raya season. For those who don't know what the Raya is all about, it is the festive season celebrated by the Malays after having done the fast for the Muslim holy month of Ramadhan. Muslims all over the world then celebrate the festive month of Syawal. In Malaysia also in Indonesia and places where there are Malays, the celebration which could last for a whole month is fondly known as Raya, a Malay world which means celebration of festival...

On Friday 1st of Syawal (10th September 2010) me, wife and baby Al-Rasyid were at the wife's family home in Tanjung Sepat, Selangor. The following the day we were already in Muar, my parent's home and in the afternoon we decided to visit a place fondly known to locals as Tanjung (the cape).

For there's a place in Tanjung which has plenty of monkeys and these creatures never fail to fascinate us.

Joining us were my only sister, husband and kids...

Here everyone was practically gaping at the mouth looking at the antics of some monkeys on trees.



Me and baby Al-Rasyid.




The wife looking out at the estuary of the Muar river at the end of the mangrove walk built to allow better views of the monkeys living in the mangrove swamp. Look at the older articles The new mangrove walk at Tanjung Ketapang, Muar and Monkeying around in Muar to get a better perspective of this place.

Here's Al-Rasyid pondering things just outside the walk.

Oh. We happened to be joined by some relatives from Johor Bahru. It was unplanned. Like us they are also fascinated by the monkeys and bumped into us...