Welcome Ramadhan Overseas

Welcome Ramadhan! Tomorrow is the first day of Ramadhan 1427. It will be very special fasting month for my family, as we are going to perform it in Australia for the first time. Off course, everything will be going differently. We do not have Ramadhan taste here as we usually have in Indonesia.

You know, we have “patrol” in Banyuwangi, a traditional music performance sounded to wake up people for “sahur” (i.e., breakfast before dawn). We have “dugderan” in Semarang, a welcoming festival of Ramadhan based on an ancient tradition of Bupati Pandanaraan, the founding father of Semarang. We can hear somebody’s reciting Qur’anic verses from Masjids’ loudspeakers in every single night of Ramadhan. People in neighborhoods are giving cakes or meals each others sometimes before sunset. TVs, radios, newspapers welcome and celebrate Ramadhan attractively. Here, in Adelaide, we don’t have such kinds of taste.

Oh, no! We do have it. We have Ramadhan taste "made in" Adelaide. What’s that? We will peform Tarawih praying in Flinders praying room. We will have “buka puasa bersama” (breaking our fasting together) in some Indonesian Australians' houses. And do not forget, we will perform our fasting in “a very different environment” - that is, fasting overseas. These are Ramadhan taste a la Adelaide. For many people, these are not new taste. But for us, my family and I, it will be part of unforgettable moments in our lives.

Welcome Ramadhan a la Adelaide!