Hari Raya means "happy day" in malay, and that's supposed to be the celebration of the end of Ramadan - a month of fasting and abstinence of pleasures... from sunrise to sunset.
During the day, not even drinking water is allowed, which is quite tough in countries where you are sweating all the time (if being outside, I happily drink 4 liters or more of water, even get up at night a couple of times to drink... except aircon lab and rainy days, I am constantly soaked with sweat, sticky and stinky :)).
After the sunset, 7pm, hari raya celebrations start. Plenty of food, usually meaty, fried and greasy, many sweats... not so appealing to me, but it's amazing to see how much attention is payed to food (though the biggest complaint is thirst). We went once to a night market in Malay Village, where you can buy special clothes for hari raya celebration, and of course endless amounts of food stalls. Traditional costumes are family sets, for example you can have an orange family, or a pink family (saw it in the show for tourists, and exactly the same in the market later).
It's less noticeable in Singapore, a bit more in Malaysia, but in Kuching where we were it's still crowded with chinese that live as usual. Still, at night people come to life. Once I had to catch a bus before sunrise, there were many foodstalls, market, people just shopping and walking around. My friend just came back from Indonesia, where you see people sleeping in mosques and just in the street during the day time. At night, they prey. And eat.
Haven't got my pictures, but will try to borrow some :)
