Merry Christmas and Happy Idul Fitri
By Aida Greenbury
JAKARTA (JP): Anna looked up at the greasy clock on the kitchen wall. It was already three o'clock in the afternoon. It was a bit hard to see the numbers behind the grayish layers of smoke and fat covering the clock's glass surface. She promised to get up there and clean it up, when the fasting month was over. Right now, with what little energy remained, she was going to prepare the fast-breaking dinner. When you are dehydrated, carrying nothing in your stomach for the past nine hours, kitchen work can be tough, easily comparable to the construction workers who throughout this month move bricks without their familiar cigarettes in their mouths.
Anna and her family had been observing the fast for almost a month -- no drinking, no eating, superbly controlled emotions and no sex from dawn until being among the sacrifices endured during this special month. The Ramadhan month was almost over. The following day, the family was going to witness the sighting of the crescent Shawwal moon, which symbolizes the end of the holy month. Then the new start begins. After 30 days of non-stop self- purification, the Muslims are reborn -- humble, clean and sinless. Idul Fitri, postfasting holiday, means a return to pureness.
Anna opened the fridge. There was a whole chicken, a bunch of palm-leaf wrapped rice cakes and palm-sugar soaked bananas for dessert. The perfect sugar-fix diet for breaking the fast. Chicken curry, rice cakes plus extra sweet condiments are the typical local Ramadhan menu. They aim to instantly replace the lost sugar and energy.
"Siti, Marni! Could you please help me prepare the food?" Anna shouted -- calling her dutiful set of temporary maids (she has to pay them double the salary she gave her usual domestic, which had disappeared a week prior to Lebaran). One of the privileges of being both opulent and fasting is that she can have other people do her jobs, especially when her energy is running low.
An hour later, she came back to the kitchen only to see that the place had turned into a messy shipwreck. Coconut milk splattered on the walls, a troop of ants marching across the window sills, ready to attack chips of brown sugar on the floor; typical domestic chaos.
Anna took a deep breath. "I'm fasting, I can't contemplate anger," she whispered to herself. Cleaning the mess in silence -- under the scrutiny of the maids, who had the classic "what did we do wrong?" look on their faces -- Anna felt incredibly relieved that Tuesday was the last day of Ramadhan. On the first day of Idul Fitri, she was going to go to the great mosque with her family early in the morning to pray, followed by visiting her relatives, who she only sees once a year, to ask forgiveness while being entertained with mountains of snacks and sweet, bright red and watered-down syrup. She has been missing that for awhile.
Christmas
Imagine that same night at a different house, approximately a hundred meters away from Anna's. Here is a completely different story. Julie, an Australian woman who has resided in Jakarta for six months, sits down at one end of her dining table. Her husband sits at the other end. Between the two their four children sit restlessly, trying so hard to finish the rest of their plum pudding and searching for the little silver coin hidden in each. Their eyes continuously go to the corner of their living room -- where a pile of Christmas presents sits sweetly under the canopy of a lush, decorated plastic green pine tree.
Julie smiles at them. She thinks back, relieved that everything has gone smoothly, not as bad as she had thought it would be. All the Christmas cards were mailed early -- considering it takes two weeks longer for them to arrive when you send them from Jakarta.
The holiday shopping in Jakarta was great. After visiting all of the Christmas bazaars in the city, Julie had enough presents for the next ten years -- including 15 glittery Santa hats. Although it wasn't quite a white Christmas -- it had never been in Sydney either -- it wasn't really much different than at home. She is looking forward to Christmas Mass tomorrow morning, although she only understands about 10 percent of what is said in the church.
Anna and Julie are two different people with two different beliefs from different backgrounds and cultures who happen to live in the same neighborhood, both celebrating in their own ways. And what do you know; Idul Fitri and Christmas are one day apart in this extraordinary December 2000.
If we are lucky -- meaning both celebrations are smooth and safe, without any politically driven riots or demonstrations -- then it's definitely going to be an unforgettable memory straight from heaven. You might even have been lucky to see a lot of Christmas trees decorated with bright green ribbon-plaited ketupat in the shopping malls.
Let's just focus on our similarities instead of our differences. Minal Aidzin Wal Faidzin and Merry Christmas. Doesn't it sound nice?