Before we went to Mak Long’s house, we stopped by at Larkin bus interchange to look for firecrackers. The kids never got the chance to have firework on Hari Raya eve. But we were disappointed coz none of the shops selling it.
Upon reaching Mak Long’s house, most of my cousins (Mak Long’s children) were already there. That night, the kids watched Hanafi & Fuad played a kind of explosive firecracker. I didn’t allow the kids to lit the crackers coz they have no experience. It was fun though.
Next morning, all of us woke up early. By 9AM, everybody was dressed up and ready to go for the qurban ritual at a nearby school compound. It was raining heavily but it didn’t stop us from going near the sacrifice ground to witness the ritual. My mum and Mak Tam dare not take a closer look, so they observed the ritual from the canteen area.
It was interesting coz it was my first experience observing qurban. There were 4 cows and 2 goats sacrificed that day. Ours was the first one to be sacrificed.
When we reached the field area, our cow was about to be tied. It took many men to fight against its struggle. But I was amazed when the cow stopped struggling when it was laid down. It seemed to have accepted its Fate. The moment knife was placed on its neck and “takbir” recited, the cow didn’t move at all. I cried after that coz I was sad at the scene. A cow can be more Islam than human. Subhanallah.
After the sacrifice, we gathered at a nearby tentage, while waiting for the cow’s body parts to be transported for skinning. Many villagers came to help. While the men busied themselves with skinning and cutting the cow’s body parts, the women helped to prepare some refreshments. This is something I like about kampong folks. They helped one another in time like this.
We brought the meat home and cut it into smaller pieces before packing and distributing them to relatives and neighbours. Kak Afi marinated some meat and we bbq it that afternoon. Mak Long cooked some meat soup. Yummy!
After everything was done and dusted, we cleansed ourselves, dressed up and ready to go back to Singapore. We brought back (or should I say smuggled) some of the meat. We prayed hard that we were not caught for bringing the meat in. Alhamdulillah, we got through the immigration checkpoint without much problem. :)
