You'd barely notice it from here in New York City, where people are more focused on Wall Street bailouts, Rosh Hashanah and the Mets' usual late-season collapse. But it's Idul Fitri, the end of the fasting month of Ramadan and the beginning of Lebaran, the holidays when everyone streams out of Indonesian cities and heads back to family in the country.
The breaking of the fast is definitely a time for celebration. When I was in Riau Province in Sumatra back in the '90s, I even tried to do the fasting thing, in brotherhood with my host family. I lasted all of a week, dehydrated and disoriented. Hats off to those who can deal with fasting from sunup to sundown for a month, because this fragile Canadian certainly didn't have the mettle for it!
So, happy holidays from America. A special shout-out to my old buddies Sukanto Toding, Afhina Burhanuddin, Sri Nanda Unun Marsindra, Ni Made Sumartini, Ritmanto Saleh, Neeloufar Naz Bazuki, Muhammad Yasir, Emmalia Natar, Bambang Setiawan, and anyone else I've forgotten. Assalamu alaikum!
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Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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3 comments:
happy idul fitri from indonesia
:)))
Selamat Idul Fitri Chris!
Gee... Chris, thanks so very very much!
You're such a kind person. It's really sweet to read this part of your blog that took me back to some 20-ish years ago. It's kinda pity that I've only discovered this just now, 3 years after you wrote it...
Keep writing, I'll try to connect this with my FB account. I don't know why I'm doing this but I have a feeling it'll turn out to be something important in the future.
Keep in touch, buddy!
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