Practices by country: Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei
Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, so it is very common to see people celebrating Eid in virtually every part of Indonesia. Eid is known in Indonesia as Idul Fitri (or more informally as Lebaran). It is a national holiday, with the exact date determined by local lunar observation. Generally speaking, in the Gregorian calendar, Idul Fitri "moves back" 11 days per year. For example, in 2009 Idul Fitri occurred on September 21 and 22, while for 2010 it is anticipated to fall on September 10 and 11 with possible variance of two to three days either side.
Additionally, in Indonesia Idul Fitri has a legally mandated salary bonus for all employees, known as Tunjangan Hari Raya (THR) as enforced by Indonesia's Department of Labour, Employment and Society ("Departemen Pengawasan Dinas Tenaga Kerja dan Sosial").
The mandated amount of this salary bonus differs by region. For example, within the Jakarta region the THR bonus must be at least Rp 1 million but not less than one month's full salary paid in advance of Idul Fitri, in addition to the employee's regular salary. Thus, Idul Fitri is also a paid holiday. Breaching or withholding THR is a very serious labour law infraction and punished severely, regardless of employer status or position.
In Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei, Eid is more commonly known as Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Hari Raya Idul Fitri or Hari Raya Puasa. Hari Raya literally means 'Celebration Day'.
It is the biggest holiday in Indonesia and one of the biggest in Malaysia. Shopping malls and bazaars are filled with people days ahead of Idul Fitri, causing a distinctive festive atmosphere throughout the country and traffic mayhem. Many banks, government and private offices are closed for the duration of the Idul festivities, known collectively as the Lebaran.
In Indonesia, it is common during this period that many people engage in "mudik" activity. It is an annual tradition that people in big cities such as Jakarta, Surabaya, or elsewhere, travel to their home town in another cities to visit their relatives in order to forgive each other and celebrate Eid with the whole family. The government of Indonesia has prepared the transportation infrastructures to accommodate a huge amount of travellers by repairing damaged roads and bridges. However, the impact will be still tremendous as millions of cars and motorcycles will jam the roads and highways, causing kilometres of traffic jams.
Additionally, the wealthier classes often "escape" to local hotels, or commonly Singapore and Australia to avoid not having domestic servants, drivers or sometimes, security personnel. Singaporean, Malaysia and Indonesian hotels have been particularly successful marketing lucrative Lebaran or Idul Fitri "escape package".
One of the largest temporary human migrations globally, is the prevailing custom of the Lebaran where workers, particularly unskilled migrants labourers such as maids and construction labourers return to one's home town or city and ask forgiveness from ones' parents, in-laws and elders. This is known as mudik, pulang kampung or in Malaysian balik kampung.
The night before Idul Fitri is filled with the sounds of many muezzin singing the takbir held in the mosques or mushollahs. In many parts of Indonesia as well as Malaysia, especially in rural areas, pelita or panjut or lampu colok (as known by Malay-Singaporeans) (oil lamps, similar to tiki torches) are lit up and placed outside and around the house. Special dishes like ketupat, dodol, lemang (a type of glutinous rice cake cooked in bamboo) and other Indo-Malay (and in the case of Malaysia, also Nyonya) delicacies are served during this day.
The lively or alternatively very emotional devotional music and sung Quranic verse associated with this period is known as Kaisidah or more correctly, Qasida. It is commonly performed by famous musicians, some of whom may be international stars and is televised nation-wide.
It is common to greet people with "Selamat Idul Fitri" or "Salam Aidilfitri" (in Malaysia) which means "Happy Eid". Muslims also greet one another with "mohon maaf lahir dan batin" in Indonesia and "maaf zahir dan batin" in Malaysia, which means "Forgive my physical and emotional (wrongdoings)", because Idul Fitri is not only for celebrations but a time for atonement: to ask for forgiveness for sins which they may have committed but was cleansed as a result of the fasting in the Muslim month of Ramadan.
It is customary for Muslim-Indonesians and Muslim-Malaysians to wear a traditional cultural costume on Idul Fitri. The Indonesian male costume is known as baju koko: a collarless long or short-sleeve shirt with traditional embroidered designs with a "kilt" sarung of songket, ikat or similar woven, plaid-cloth or alternatively either modern business-suit trousers or more traditional loose-fitting trousers of similar colour to the shirt, and either a peci hat or regional cultural head wear and songkok. Malaysian variant is known as the baju Melayu, shirt worn with a sarong known as kain samping and a headwear known as songkok.
Female costume is known as kebaya krudung. It consists of, normally, a loose-fitting blouse (which may be enhanced with brocade and embroidery), a long skirt both of which may be batik, or the sarung skirt made of batik, ikat or songket and either the jilbab (hijab) or its variant the stiffened krudung.
Malaysian costume is referred to as Baju Kurung and baju kebaya. It is a common practice however for the Muslim-Malaysians in Singapore to refer to the baju kurung in reference to the type of outfit, worn by men. It should be noted this term is not used in Indonesia, as it is an example of humorous poor translation between Malaysian and Indonesian, as kurung means a cage, parentheses, or a sack, depending on the context.
For non-Austronesian Muslims, or even non-Muslims they may don costumes of their respective culture and tradition, or wear Islamic clothes to show respect to their relatives' or friends' differing religious beliefs for the occasion. This is particularly common in Indonesia, where many families have close friends or relatives of differing faiths, namely Catholic, some Protestant and Muslim.
Once the prayer is completed, it is common for Muslims in both Indonesia and Malaysia to visit the graves of loved ones. During this visit, they clean the grave, recite Ya-Seen, a chapter (sura) from the Qur'an and also perform the tahlil ceremony. All these are done to ask God to forgive the dead and also those who are living for all their sins.
The Javanese majority of Indonesia are known for their Kejawen traditions of washing the headstone using scented water from the traditional terracotta water-jug, the kendi, and sprinkling hyacinth and jasmine over the graves.
In Indonesia there is a special ritual called halal bi-halal. During this, Muslim-Indonesians visit their elders, in the family, the neighbourhood, or their work, and show respect to them. They will also seek reconciliation (if needed), and preserve or restore harmonious relations.
The rest of the day is spent visiting relatives or serving visitors. Idul Fitri is a very joyous day for children as the adults give them money.
They also celebrate by lighting traditional bamboo cannon firecrackers known as meriam bambu Ramadhan, using kerosene in large hollow bamboo tubes or Chinese imported crackers. The traditional bamboo cannon, meriam bambu are notoriously loud and can be very dangerous to operator, bystander and even nearby buildings.
These are usually bamboo tubes 5–10 cm (2.0–3.9 in) in diameter and 4–7 m (13–23 ft) long, filled with either: water and several hundred grams of calcium carbide, or heated kerosene, then ignited by match.
Celebrating with firecrackers in the early morning during Ramadan is now banned in many areas - though many rascals evade the law and disturb the neighbourhood.[citation needed]
In Malaysia, children will be given token sums of money, also known as "duit raya" (literally "celebration money"), from their parents or elders.
Source: wikipedia.org
