As a Muslim, I always feel anxious when the Holy month of Ramadan approaches. Having celebrate it for 24 years in my home country, Indonesia, that has the largest Muslim populations in the world, sure makes certain memories and traditions that I still follow. Those memories and traditions during Ramadan really help me to implement to my own family, though we live in United States. There's no prayer calls every now and then here, unlike in Indonesia. There's no people going around the neighborhood trying to wake up people to do SAHUR, the early breakfast before doing the fasting. Doing fasting in United States is somehow becomes our struggle, not because we can't consume any food or drink during the day, but also a struggle to control our emotions. A struggle when almost no one does the same thing like us or even realize it, unlike in Indonesia where almost everybody does the fasting together.
This year Ramadan falls on the summer month. Every day for about 18 hours, my husband, our oldest daughter and I fast, while our younger kids fast for half-day (they break in the afternoon). Some days were hard because of the heat and humidity that could drain our energy. The part about Ramadan that makes it interesting is creating some Eid greetings that I would send to family, relatives and close friends. I've been doing it since we live in United States. At first, my Eid greeting was so simple, since my time was scarce having a baby (or babies) to take care of. Through the years, my creations of Eid greetings have evolved so much. It's always a pleasure to acknowledge the celebration of end of Ramadan by sending special and handmade cards to family, relatives and friends. When they said they've received the card, it makes me really happy. These are some of the Eid greetings I created to celebrate a special day of purification and to becoming more humble Muslim, EID-UL FITR.
