HARI Raya Aidilfitri or Eid al-Fitr is celebrated by Muslims worldwide to mark the end of Ramadan. What we look forward to most is spending time with family and enjoying a traditional gastronomic feast.
For the children, they look forward to all of the above but most of all, collecting their duit raya.
In this week’s The Star Online poll, we asked our readers what was the most crazy amount of duit raya they received and the figures were as low as five sen to RM1,000 and above.
One respondent said when he was 12 years old, he was shocked to receive just five sen of duit raya.
“I remember it was a relative’s place. I couldn’t believe it was only five sen. They weren’t wealthy but they were not poor either,” he said.
Like the “worst wedding gift”, some people also said they received empty Hari Raya packets.
“Until today, I never forgot the person who gave me the empty packet. I understand that it could have been a genuine mistake where they forgot to put the money in but if not, what were they thinking?”
Other than cash, some poll respondents said they received duit raya in the form of a 100gm gold bar, iPhone 5s, flight tickets, perfume and even a lottery ticket.
The duit raya custom actually differs in other countries. For example, in Pakistan, “Eidi” is given out in cash form, without the customary envelope.
Mehwesh Ahsan, from Karachi, Pakistan, who lives in Kuala Lumpur, said the young people in her village would carry with them stacks of cash come Eid Mubarak and they are allowed to purchase whatever they want with it.
“More often, the boys will buy wallets so they can safely store their ‘collection’ while the girls can be seen carrying around a cute handbag to keep their cash in,” she said, adding that duit raya was a great incentive for children to visit their relatives.
