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Thursday, August 16, 2012

My experience: Fasting & Iftar in Bulan Ramadhan

Puasa (fasting) is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink or both for a period time. source: wikipedia

In my experience, fasting is a need and obligatory practice for Malaysian Muslim before they celebrate their New Year which called Hari Raya. Normally they will fasting for a month before Hari Raya and usually start from dawn (subuh) until dusk (maghrib). They are prohibited from eating, drinking and engaging in sexual activity. Besides that, they are also encouraged to control their negative temper such as anger and addiction. Therefore, fasting helps to develop good behavior. =)

As what i knew, there is special exemption for a girl who period during the fasting month, but they have to replace it after that. Most of my friends, they replace it when near to another fasting month which is another year coming soon. There is a reason why they replace at that period but i don't know why.. Maybe next time i should ask them to find out why.. =)

For the pass previous years, i do fasting with my diploma friends, fully a month. Well, its may sound weird for a Chinese to fasting because it is not our culture. But for me, there is another reason why i fasting, fasting actually good for health and of course DIET (that my main reason). hehe.. i do lose 1 or 2 kg when i fasting because when fasting we will start control our eating and when break the fast we won't eat so much. 

Besides that, i do found out and i experience it, fasting actually also make us close to each other especially with friends and family. Iftar (Arabic) refers to the evening meal when Muslim break their fast. Normally when they break their fast, they will Iftar with their friends and family. This is the moment, where they can spend time, sit and eat together. For family, mostly parent will cook. Its also can be like family gathering. That's why all my malay friends leaving me here all alone and went back home to eat mom's cooks. Besides that, all of their sibling will go back home as well. So, they can meet all the family members and spend time together. 

Then i also found out something that i like during fasting month, which is Bazaar Ramadhan~ 
Bazaar meaning market. In Malaysia, when it come to Bazaar Ramadhan, there is a lot of variety foods and drinks. You can get a lot of Malaysia traditional foods which is not all the times we can get it such as my favourite food, kuih Tepung Pelita, Ayam Percik, Ondeh-ondeh, Kuih Cara, and so on. But there is one thing that i don't like is, sometimes the seller took this chances to mark up the prices and also sold foods at small quantity. (niaga tak ikhlas ni)

This are some of the Malaysian traditional foods i ate.

This year, due to my close friends is malay and most of the time i spend with them, so i also fasting but not fully. This year quite special because most of the time i fasting with my close friends mas and ida. They show me all the delicious and nice foods. Introduce me new type of malay kuih and taste it. Besides that, they also told me more about fasting so that i can gain more knowledge about their culture. From them, first time in my life, i knew the word of "Iftar". 

From them, only i knew that if a person with no intention taste a food because forgotten he/she fasting at that moment, their fasting did not cancel (batal). Because god create human not perfectly and sometimes human forgot what he/she do.

Iftar at D'Manis Restoran

In Malaysia, there is variety of religion such as Chinese, Malay, Christian and India. Every religion have their own special practice and tradition but we still can live together and respect each other's tradition. Some of my chinese friend even fasting for some period such as in class or going out with malay friends because they respect their malay friends during fasting by not eating in front of them.

Until today i only experience and felt how is it the fasting like.
For the first time in my life, this year i will experience the Hari Raya at my malay friend's house for this coming Hari Raya and of course i will wear baju kurung. Besides that, i also told my friend my favor which is i want to eat lemang or ketupat for this Raya. heheee... Hope my wish come true. =) 

Last, i wish Selamat Hari Raya to all my malay friends and have a wonderful Raya this year.
And also thanks for reading my blog. =)


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