Hari Raya – A Guide for the Unsure

By A. Najib Ariffin - Nadge –

“...Hari Raya, which is the Muslim New Year... ”, Oops! Have you heard anyone say something like that, or do you yourself think Hari Raya is the Muslim New Year? Well, it is not - but that was what one Malaysian speaker mentioned while addressing a public function some time ago. Granted, the person was not Muslim but having heard that, this is a good chance to explain a few things about “puasa” and “Hari Raya” (“literally the “Great Day”) for the better understanding of our multi-cultural society.

Hari Raya in relation to the puasa (Malay word for “fasting”) in the month of Ramadhan is the celebration to mark the fulfillment of the month's fasting, which is an obligatory part of Islamic faith. Thus it is sometimes half-jokingly said that any Muslim who does not puasa doesn't have the right to celebrate Hari Raya. Also it is clear that it is NOT the Muslim New Year, which by the way is another holiday, Awal Muharram (Muharram being the first month in the Islamic calendar).

Delicious "Kuih raya" or festive cookies of many kinds sold at the ubiquitous Bazaar Ramadhan around Malaysia, to be served to guests at Hari Raya season when people visit each other, a tradition called  'Rumah Terbuka' (Open House).

It is pertinent to note that the Ramadhan fasting and the celebration at its completion are not just a Malaysian or Melayu Muslim affair. The whole Muslim Ummah (“Umat” in Malay or roughly “the community”) all over the world performs the same fasting and celebrates it at the end. In Arabic, Hari Raya Puasa is the 'Eid or “'Eid-ul-Fitr” and this is Malaysianised in spelling as “Aidil Fitri” (or "Idul Fitri" in Indonesia).

Meanwhile the other Hari Raya is for the Hajj, or “Hari Raya Haji” and also called “Hari Raya Kurban”, because it marks both the annual Pilgrimage for pilgrims to holy Makkah (Mecca) in Saudi Arabia as well as commemorating the symbolic sacrifice of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) on his son Ismail (Ishmael). Kurban means “sacrifice” and at this feast domestic animals are sacrificed or properly slaughtered for their meat to be distributed, especially to the poor.

Back to the puasa itself. The fasting practically and physically means not eating, drinking (not even a drop of water) or engaging in sexual activities during the fast. The actual time of fasting is the entire daytime. This is from when the first indication of light is visible in the horizon (note that this is before actual sunrise as the light appears before the sun itself) and ends exactly at sunset. Both times are marked by the “azan” (or the “bang” in colloquial Malay) i.e. the calls to prayer at Subuh pre-sunrise and then at Maghrib sunset.

Some people also wonder about the annually 'changing' times of Ramadhan and Hari Raya, which don't coincide with the standard solar or Western calendar. This is because they follow the Islamic calendar that observes the cycle of the moon, similar to the Chinese calendar. There are 12 months in the Islamic calendar but they follow the shorter moon cycle, as the lunar month is less than the solar 30 or 31 days in a month. Thus on average the Islamic year is shorter than the solar year by roughly 11-odd days.

This means that the Islamic months, such as Ramadhan, slowly 'move' earlier each year throughout the solar years. Actually both the sun and moon are not exactly regular in their relative movements with the earth and that is why there are 'leap years' in the solar calendar, while in the Muslim calendar the actual observation of the moon is made, to visually sight the new crescent moon that marks the fasting and then Hari Raya.

Selamat Hari Raya Puasa!

The Legend of Mu, and how the Malay people and Atlantis got their names

At 08:20 PM 3/22/01 , ak wrote: ...
"Melayu" is a word that existed long before the Europeans 'discovered' our wonderful little paradise... but its meaning in Javanese is not flattering either...

Nadge's feedback:
I'd suggest that it is neither flattering nor unflattering, but factual and there's an interesting web of info behind this meaning of "melayu". In fact, in the oral tradition of our ancestors I was told this long ago by my Javanese paternal relatives back in Yogyakarta (Jogjakarta, Indonesia), and I subscribe to this view.

Here's why - I will tell it to you as it was told to me – in Malay:

Dalam bahasa Jawa, malahan juga dalam banyak dialek lain di Nusantara (contohnya Bahasa Batak-Mendailing dll.) istilah "melayu" bermaksud "lari"! Umpamanya semasa kecil dulu, kita anak-anak yang hanya berbahasa Jawa lalu bermain kejar-kejar seringkali menjerit "melayu! melayu!" yang bermaksud "lari! lari!"!

Nah, gimana wujudnya nama bangsa "Melayu" yang membawa erti sama dengan maksud "lari"? Harus juga diingat bahawa hampir semua kumpulan etnis di kepulauan Asia Tenggara termasuk di Filipina juga mengaku diri mereka sebangsa "rumpun Melayu" walaupun dari segi komunitas lokal berbeda-beda ada Melayu Malaysia, Melayu Riau, Jakun, Minang, Bugis, Jawa, Dayak dll. - karena ada suatu lagenda yang dikongsi bersama tentang asal-usul mereka.

Menurut lagenda oral turun-temurun yang wujud di banyak tempat di Asia Tenggara & Pasifik dari Aceh hingga ke Hawaii, beribu tahun silam terdapat suatu benua kuno yang bernama “Mu”. Penduduknya mempunyai kehidupan bermasyarakat yang amat maju dan selesa dengan pelbagai ilmu hingga dikatakan boleh terbang!

Tapi lama-kelamaan setelah hidup dalam kemewahan, mereka menjadi leka, tidak bersyukur, jatuh akhlak moral dan bergaduh sesama sendiri, atau juga ada sebab yang lain... Tapi akhirnya, Tuhan (yang mereka panggil "Sang Kekal") amat murka dan melandakan gempa bumi dan letusan gunungan berapi yang maha dahsyat beserta hujan lebat toh malapetaka banjir besar-besaran terjadi. Segala-galanya tenggelam ke dalam laut.

Penduduknya ramai yang mati, hanya yang muda-muda yang kuat dan bisa lari ke tanah-tanah tinggi saja yang terselamat, atau menaiki perahu untuk lari ke tempat jauh. Semuanya terpisah bertempiaran ke berbagai haluan, lalu tersadai di puncak-puncak dataran tinggi yang membentuk kepulauan Nusantara di Asia Tenggara kini.

Semasa turun bala itu, anak-anak benua "Mu" itu menjerit "melayu! melayu" yang bermaksud "lari" dalam bahasa mereka. Dan olehkarena dahsyat dan sengsaranya kejadian itu terpaku di sanubari para anak Mu yang terselamat, maka mereka semua memanggil diri mereka rumpun "Orang Melayu", iaitu "Orang yang lari".

Kita yang tersadai di Asia Tenggara akhirnya dianugerah dengan Islam dan nama Tuhan Sang "Kekal" kini kita tahu sebagai Allah swt. Yang Maha Esa. Tentang saudara-saudara kuno kita yang lari melintas Lautan Teduh (nama Melayu untuk lautan yang aman, teduh atau passive yakni Pasifik / Pacific Ocean -Ed.), kita tidak tahu apa terjadi pada mereka, hingga kita katakan mereka hilang tenggelam ditelan dek "Lautan Telan" (= “atelan” = Atlantik).

Tapi hari ini kita tahu, mereka itu tiba di satu benua besar lain lalu terus hidup dan memakai nama tidak jauh dari kita iaitu Maya, dan Tuhan mereka masih kekal bernama "Kekalkan".

Saudara-saudara anak serumpun kita itu mempunyai lagenda yang sama seperti kita, iaitu bahawa mereka itu anak yang lari dari satu bencana benua lama, dan moyang mereka ditelan dan “telus” ke dalam laut. Dari lagenda lain, nama benua Mu yang hilang itu diingati dari "anak telan telus" sebagai "Atlantis"...

Check these facts: (1) Up to as late as 9,000 years ago much of today's Malay Archipelago was above water and basically was a land bridge to Australia. (2) This story ties in with the legend of the catastrophic "Great Flood(s)" mentioned in most religious texts and cultural traditions of the world. (3) The Mayans and many native Indians of the Americas today resemble Malays too, and a major god of the Mayans is Kuculcan (pronounced 'Kukul-kan')... still close sounding to Sang Kekal(kan) meaning “the Great One who is Permanent and Maintains Permanence” in Malay.

The Malay, the Maya and other related peoples are the Children of the Lost Continent of Mu, also known as Atlantis, which was located in the Southeast Asia Pacific region before the Flood.

This also explains why Southeast Asia's Malay civilization appears to be materially 'young' - no ancient cities, monuments, written texts etc. as it was all sunk and lost, while the young survivors who had to quickly “melayu” or run had to leave behind everything as they escaped to the new lands i.e. the once-were highlands of Mu that are now the islands of the Malay Archipelago.

But how come their Maya cousins of the Americas have great cities of stone pyramids and written glyph records? Ah! There's a most interesting reason for that, which ties in with an even older and sinister legend. But that's for me to tell at another time...

-nadge-
Anak of Mu / Atlantis