Balik Kampung & Open House

We are enjoying a stretch of holidays. This year the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays coincide with National Day which is also a holiday. A replacement holiday is given so that there are three consecutive days where everyone enjoys the holidays which fall on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. These three days fall within the mid-semester school term break so what most people ( especially parents ) do is to take leave on Monday and Friday so that they will have a stretch of nine days’ holidays, from Saturday to the following Sunday.

Malaysia is truly a paradise in that there are so many public holidays and school holidays. There are always celebrations to look forward to as we are a multiracial society with our own festivals to celebrate.

A few days before a festival, there will be a mass exodus from the capital city, as well as other big towns, with vehicles clogging up the main motorways as people hurry to “balik kampung” ( go home ) to celebrate with their families. All siblings and their families will do their best to return home to celebrate with their parents. It is this reunion which sees people driving long distances or flying in.

This practice is not limited to any particular community. All the ethnic communities in Malaysia do this. We all “balik kampung” when our festivals come round.

Some “kampung” may be located in the smaller towns or rural areas while others may be the big towns or the capital city. It is usually where one was brought up and lived in the formative years of one’s life.

This is the event that almost all elderly folk look forward to. Their homes are spruced up for the return of children and grandchildren. A lot of planning and cooking has been done to welcome home the youngsters and their offspring. Money in green packets ( for Hari Raya Aidilfitri ) are kept handy for distribution to the children when they greet their elders with good wishes.

The practice of “open house” is unique to Malaysia whereby anyone is welcome to join families to celebrate the festival. There is no need to issue invitations and it is a done thing to welcome even strangers to your home and your table.

This is a very good way for friends to renew acquaintances which might have gone slightly stale over the year. It is not unusual for some one to ask “Hey, what day is your open house?” to which the response will be “ The first day. Please come and bring all your kids!” Or it could be the second day as some people would pay their respects to their elders and relatives on the first day of the celebration.

The atmosphere is one of goodwill, camaraderie and partaking of the elaborate spread of food. This goes on throughout the day although these days some people will specify the time say from ten in the morning till five in the evening.

That’s when the hosts are ready to drop from exhaustion !!