Wednesday, October 25, 2006
~ Wednesday, October 25, 2006 ~
Salam Aidilfitri.
Yesterday was the first day of Syawal... which means that its finally HARI RAYA!!! XD
It's kinda weird, though... Usually, to me, Hari Raya meant getting to eat during the day after a whole month of fasting and, of course, the money. Now...
Ironic, huh? I seemed to be more obsessed with cash this year more than usual... But on this Hari Raya, I hardly though of it. It felt more like what Hari Raya should be - a time to celebrate and visit all your relatives. A time to share with your family.
It was when I went to visit Cik Ama (My mom's aunt) with most of my other cousins that I realise that if it wasn't for Hari Raya, when would we find the time to visit our relatives? As it is, I barely know a huge fraction of my relatives, yet they are related to me.
Also, look at our society today. Who in this world isn't busy day in and out? Some parents hardly have time for their own children or family. What more their cousins, aunties, and uncles? Many people now only want to have one or two kids, but a time not too long ago, a family had about eight or nine children. Even my grandfather who was a taxi driver and my grandmother who was a housewife had eight children.
To some, it might seem quite a long time ago, but it was actually just about two generations ago. Back then, tradition was very strong and people visited each other frequently. They knew practically everyone from the top of their family tree to the bottom. And back then people had an average of eight kids. Their entire relations were MORE, yet now, with people having less and less kids, they recgonize less and less of their relatives when it should be easier. It's not just embarassing and ironic - it's a bit sad, actually.
To top it all up, we have so many ways of communicating each other. E-mails, handphones, and the Internet. Yet we hardly speak to our parents anymore, don't make up with our siblings, and dig such a deep chasm between our cousins. You could be praying in a mosque, church, or temple and right next to you is the cousin you never knew and never bothered knowing. Will this go on? Will there one day be a time when you hardly recgonize your own grandparents? Your mother? Your brother? Your sister? Your very own CHILDREN?
Well... I don't know why I suddenly think of these things, but I guess it s a good thing. I never really bothered about this but... ah well. Things change.
