Eid Mubarak in Indonesia

In Indonesia, Lebaran or Idul Fitri or Eid Mubarak is a yearly annual for muslims of Indonesia, also celebrated by every muslims in any other countries in celebration of ending a holy month of Ramadhan and welcoming Sya'wal (from the Arabic calendar) as a symbolical day for going back to holiness, as locals said Idul Fitri in translation to ‘returning to purity'. Lebaran is not a culture; it is part of a religion celebratory event and to celebrate it is not an obligation for the believers.

Idul Fitri as I recall is a religious celebratory when it comes to its early morning prayers, then the continuity is rather a culture. After Ied prayer usually people comes to their family, gather and done ‘sungkeman' – a process when the children of a family apologizes to parents and the other family members, continued with big supper of lontong and ketupat sayur, and the whole day is about spending the day with people near you as a relationship-bonder activity by visiting nor visited by far and near-family related persons. At least, that's the tradition of my family as an Indonesian muslim with the Padangnese culture my family adapt as our heritage.

Padangnese is known for it's tight familial bonding, even after the Lebaran day, within a week further families visitation was still done by my family members. The children are usually excited to accept THR (Tunjangan Hari Raya) as ‘holiday allowance' and the elders and parents have the visitation purposed to bond more with many other related families, even acquintances may also visit and be visited, it is not only closely private to a family. Some of the things explained on the previous paragraphs doesn't refers to religious procedure, it can be categorized as cultural and tradition activities by some Indonesian muslims.

For me, to celebrate Lebaran every year of 15 years of my life, I am now able to identify the impact of Lebaran to my life. Firstly, it affects me spiritually because it is a religious celebration, and I see it as an opportunity to get myself closer to God. For me, Lebaran is not only about the money and ending a full month of fasting (read:hunger), but also a moment to improve myself for environment and everything that surrounds me and my life. Then, nothing can come across family. Lebaran is the moment where family gets the opportunity to get closer, as Indonesian government also declare that every first of Syawal as national holiday,