We recently celebrated one of the biggest events of the year called hari raya idul fitri. This day celebrates the end of the fasting month and is similar to Christmas day in Australia. On the night before people pray and pray all night long over the load speakers and people beat on drums until early in the morning. I managed to sleep right through it but mum and dad kept waking every hour or so until 6 in the morning when it finally went silent again. Then, very early in morning, the whole community meets together on a local field to pray together and hear a talk and then they ask for forgiveness from each other for sins that they may have commited during the last year.
After that everyone goes from house to house and asks for forgiveness. In every house there are loads of yummy cakes and drinks and chocolate and I am allowed to each as much as I like. For some people it is a very emotional day as they meet with their families and seek forgiveness, many people cry and travel for hours and hours to visit relatives. We had lunch with Ibu Tati and Ibu Sumi and their families and I got to play with their turtle. We also visited many other people and had dinner with another close neighbour and many people brought us food so that we had enough to eat for 2 days!
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