In The Mood for Celebration!

The puasa month will start next week, which means that Hari Raya will be just around the corner. Being Malaysians, we tend to get into celebration mood way earlier before the actual day itself. Tailors are busy finishing their numerous orders for Baju Raya, shops are doing pre-Raya sales, and hotels are offering Buka Puasa buffets at attractive prices.

In schools, where the majority of teachers are Malay, the first sign of celebration is the promotion of Hari Raya cookies, a.k.a. Kuih Raya. Teachers suddenly become part-time entrepreneurs, promoting their mouth-watering cookies and handing out free samples to their potential customers -- other teachers who can't wait to fill up their kitchen shelves with jars of kuih raya. The race is on for the cheapest and tastiest cookies on offer!

I have no intention of buying these cookies which are only available in 50's or 100's, because I know I'll have a hard time finishing them staying alone. I'll feel sick of eating those cookies halfway through, and I can't keep them for long or they'll go bad... And yet, there's no stopping me from sinking my teeth into those free samples, because they are really delicious. Well, anything is delicious if it's free and if it's eaten on an empty stomach!

It's funny to see teachers placing orders for these cookies even before the puasa month starts. I guess that during puasa month, nobody can actually taste those samples, so there's no way of knowing if they have ordered the right kinds of cookies for their taste. I just hope that those cookies won't be delivered to them during puasa month, or they will have to resist the urge to eat them before Hari Raya arrives.

As always, being in the 1 Malaysia spirit, it's not just the Malay teachers who are taking and placing orders. Non-Malay teachers are also joining in the fun as well: sampling the cookies and filling up the order forms. How else could we eat delicious Raya cookies if not during the Raya season itself? As for me, I'm just happy that I got to eat lots of free cookies...