Eid Mubarak 2.0

Last week I was pretty occupied with Eid Al-Fitr celebration week. Eid Al-Fitr or Feast of Breaking the Fast is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting (source: Wikipedia). With more than 80% of Muslims population, yes it is very big in Indonesia. We had more than a week of national holidays this year.

As a very collective society, Eid Al-Fitr in Indonesia involves many gatherings with families and friends. Below picture shows one family gathering I attended this year. Note: It is only ONE out of minimum 4 gatherings (friends not included), which covers my mother’s & father’s extended families and my husband’s mother’s and father’s extended family. These gatherings were located not only in the city where I live in but also in other cities. Sounds tiring? Yes! The perks of being Indonesians! :)

Source: My own photo. Me? Wearing pink at the front. :)

Indonesians usually wear traditional Indonesian or Islamic clothing for this particular occasion. Me? I decided to wear kebaya (a traditional Indonesian blouse) combined with kain batik (handmade drawing patterns in an unstitched fabric wrap around three meters long).

Why this year is a 2.0 celebration?

Invitations for family gatherings were distributed at our family messenger groups in Line and/or WhatsApp. For the occasion, I bought the whole outfit from a seller I found on Instagram. I then used YouTube tutorials to wear kain batik (believe me, it’s not that easy and my mom usually had to do it for me :p). I also explored other YouTube tutorials for my make-up and hair-do. Lastly, with crazy traffic in the city, I utilized Waze to complement Google Maps in finding the fastest route for attending one gathering to another.

The power of networked individuals, it is.

Web 2.0 never stops to amaze me. 

Lastly, I would like to say to those who celebrate it:

Happy Eid Mubarak 1436H

Taqabbalallâhu minnâ wa minkum

(May God accept from us and you our fasts and deeds)