Idul Fitri Celebration ala Groningen

The new crescent moon has been sight in the night sky. All the Muslims around the world  recite takbir on the biggest day of the year. Yeah, after the completion of ramadhan fasting, it’s time now to celebrate Eid ul fitr. Actually, Eid is not a celebration of the end of fasting. Eid is a celebration of gratitude to Allah for his blessing in our life and a moment to express best wishes to all brothers and sisters.

Every Eid I always do a tradition called ‘mudik‘, which means going back home, to celebrate Eid with my parents and all family members. But, Eid this year is a bit different for me because I had to celebrate Eid in groningen, netherlands. It was my first time celebrating Eid far away from Indonesia. Eid in netherlands is called Suikerfeest which means sweet feast. It was adapted from the tradition of Eid in Turkey which called Seker Bayrami (Bayram of Sweets). Do you know why it’s called sweet feast? because turkish people always have a lot of sweet foods and cakes which specially made for eid celebration.

The atmosphere of eid here is really different from eid in Indonesia. You know, for indonesian people, Eid is the biggest festival of the year. We call it ‘lebaran‘, which literally means ‘the end of something’, in this case, the end of fasting month. All Government offices and private organizations are closed on Eid day. Here in netherlands, Eid is not declared as national public holiday and the celebration is hmm.. quite simple. Well.. it’s maybe because muslim are the minority here. Most muslim here are from Turkey, Marocco, and Indonesia.

So, how was our Eid celebration? This year, Indonesian muslim student association, PPIG-deGromiest, organized the eid celebration for Indonesian muslim in groningen. The Eid prayer was held in De Holm, near the city centre of groningen. We started by takbir at 07.00 in the morning, followed by shalat (pray) and khutbah (speech), and ended by ‘halal bi-halal’ to ask forgiveness from everyone.

After the Eid prayer, we all went to our friends house, to gather, and of course.. to eat. Hha.. the celebration of Eid ul Fitr is not complete without food. It’s always a tradition to have special eid dish. There we had typical indonesian food like rendang (beef curry),  opor ayam (coconut chicken), lontong (rice cake), and some sweet foods for dessert. Unfortunately, we don’t have ketupat on our table. Yeah.. ketupat (rice steamed in woven packets of coconut fronds) is really special because it is a symbol of Eid ul-Fitr feast in Indonesia. Overall we really enjoyed the food there. Even though we far away from home and couldn’t have our Eid with our family, we could still feel Indonesian eid atmosphere here. Thank you for everyone here for being a great friend and family.

Here are a few moments of our Eid ul fitr celebration in Groningen

We started eid celebration by takbir early in the morning

Khutbah, eid ul Fitr speech by Ustad Muizz

Kids also join eid prayer and kutbah

‘Halal bi halal’ to ask forgiveness from everyone

Family and friends in groningen

Special eid dish, without ketupat..

Special eid dish including opor ayam and rendang..

Everbody really enjoyed the food

Kids celebrate eid in their own way.. 🙂

Well, that is how we celebrate Eid here. Ramadhan fasting and Eid ul Fitr in Neterlands where Muslims are the minority was definitely a great experience.

Greetings from us here in Groningen!

Happy Eid everyone!
Minal a’idin wal faizin
May Allah bless us and gives us all the kindness..

Groningen, 31 Agustus 2011

Irfan Prabudiansyah

Foto:  Surahyo Sumarsono and Amel Arramel