Lebaran

By: Kartini

It was Sunday 20 September 2009. I wore my new dress because that day was Eid Il Fitri holiday or Lebaran. Anah, Yana, Mala and I went for the Morning Prayer in the local mosque. After the prayer, we shook hands to each other as a sign of forgiveness. Then we went to visit Yana’s house and greet Yana’s mom, Yana, Ipul and Mbak Indri.

From Yana’s place, Anah, Yana and I went to Grandma’s place to greet Grandma, Bi Eri, Bi Endang and Mang Yono. After those visits, I went home to greet my family.
From home, Anah and I went to Yana’s place. Unfortunately Yana and her family went to visit their family in Tanjung Priok. So it’s only Anah and I left.

Anah and I decided that we should go and greet Mama Ari, Mang Tarudi and Mang Rohadi while waited for Kak Debby. Waiting for Kak Debby turned out to be a while so Anah and I went to Mang Tarudi’s house to see some programs on television. After a few hours watching TV, I asked Anah to go to the warong.

From the warong, we went back waiting for Kak Debby. Then I decided to go to the warong again by myself. On the bridge near Bashro alley, I ran into Yana’s grandma.
She said, “Kartini, Kak Debby has arrived!”
I went straight away to the learning house instead of the warong, but when I arrived, Kak Debby was still not there. There was only Kak Lucy.

I asked Kak Lucy,” Where’s Kak Debby?”

Kak Lucy said, “She’s not here yet”

Then Kak Debby introduced me to her sister, Kak Welly. Not long after that, Kak Vera arrived and followed by Kak Debby.

Now that Kak Debby, Kak Vera, Kak Lucy, Kak Welly and the older students had gathered, we went to visit houses in the neighbourhood for Lebaran.

The first house that we went to visit was Susi’s house. She’s not home because she went back to her hometown. The second house for the visit was Desi’s house. We weren’t given any food or drink there but that’s alright. We went there for Lebaran, not for the cookies. The third house was my house. Mom had prepared some cakes and icy poles. I didn’t know the name of the cakes.

The fourth house on the visit was Tia’s house. Tia’s mom served us more cakes and icy poles. From Tia’s house, we went to Ari’s house. Ari’s mom served us another cakes along with milk coffee and syrup drink. The sixth house that we went to was Yana’s house. Yana’s mom provided us with jelly, bitter nut crackers, onion cookies and many others. The seventh house was Grandma’s house. Grandma gave us jelly, pale yellow mellon drink, onion cookies, wafer and biscuits. From there, the eight or the last house that we went to was Mala’s house.

Anah, Yana, Ester, Jemima, Yulia, Tia, Mala, Kak Debby, Kak Vera, Kak Lucy, Kak Welly and I walked to Mala’s house. There, Mala’s mom had prepared some rice crackers, peanuts, biscuits and cold aqua for us. We also had vegetable curry with ketupat.

After visiting eight houses, I felt so full that my stomach was about to burst. So I went home.

Legend:
Mbak: a Javanese name for older sister as a sign of respect
Bi: a Betawi’s name for aunty
Mang or Mamang: a Betawi’s name for uncle
Yayu : aunty in Sundanese/Javanese
Kak: an Indonesian name for older person as a sign of respect
Kolang – kaling : attap seed dessert
Ketupat : rice cake wrapped and cooked in coconut leaves.
Silaturahmi : visiting each other events