Hey, what’s up?

For those unfamiliar with Eid al-Fitr (or Aidilfitri, as we call it back home), it’s a celebration that marks the end of Ramadan—a month where Muslims fast during daylight hours (yep, no food or drink from dawn till dusk!). According to the Hijri calendar, it’s Eid 1446 this year! In this post, I’ll be sharing how I celebrated with friends and family, even though I didn’t get to go home.

Since I couldn’t fly back to Malaysia this year—thanks to using up all my annual leave on travelling (oops)—and because my parents visited me in England back in February, we decided to take our Eid photos two months early!

My dad was here during the first two weeks of February, so the photo above is of us together, me wearing my Baju Melayu from two years ago. It was my first (and probably last) time buying from BulanBintang—a Malaysian brand. Let’s just say the quality didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

In the last two weeks of February, my mum came over and surprised me with a bright yellow Baju Melayu complete with samping! This one was from Elrah Exclusive, a brand I’ve been loyal to for the past five years. I’ve got their jubahs, kurtas, and several sets of Baju Melayu. We went to Markeaton Park and snapped some “Raya” photos together before heading off to Austria later that month—yes, all this was before Ramadan even started, lol!

Fast forward a month of Ramadan (you might’ve noticed I didn’t post much during that time, apart from Austria Part 3—it was a busy month), and finally, it was Eid!

This year, I celebrated in Nottingham with Hafifi and Aliah at their place. Since Eid landed on a weekend, they were both off work—perfect timing! My original plan was to head down to London, but I’d just returned from Belgium the day before Eid and was way too tired.

I brought along some kuih raya my lovely mum had posted all the way from Malaysia (bless her!), and Hafifi and Aliah cooked up a storm. The highlight? A smoked lamb leg that had been cooked overnight (okay, not literally overnight… maybe just a few hours… but still!). My tummy was very, very happy that morning.

After eating, we headed to Wollaton Park, which is just around the corner from their house, to take some photos. Hafifi had the brilliant idea of us jumping in our traditional outfits. After many, many attempts, we finally got a decent shot (see photo above). Aliah was jumping too—but you’ll have to take our word for it, HAHA!

That evening, we dropped by Qay’s Airbnb, where his family was staying for Eid. They were so welcoming and served us loads of food—but my favourite was definitely the kuah lodeh. So good!

The following weekend, I joined my work colleagues for a little Raya picnic—kind of a potluck situation. We picked a park close to all our houses, and since it was early in the morning, we pretty much had it to ourselves. Not many dogs around either, which was a bonus. The weather was sunny and perfect—couldn’t have asked for a better day.

Then, just this week, my housemates hosted a mini open house. We invited a few friends who lived nearby (we would’ve invited more but our tiny houseshare can only fit so many!). We played cards, chatted about work, ate, played a (halal) drinking game with cola (well… most of us were halal, I guess), ate again, and just kept on eating. It was chaotic in the best way.

Even though I couldn’t go home this year, I’m so grateful for the people I got to spend Eid with. It was a celebration full of laughter, food, and warmth. Fingers crossed I’m not on-call next year—or else I might just call in sick! 😅

Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch you in the next post!