The Hari Raya festivities mark the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, and it is a time when families get to together to celebrate. To help Johor Bahru’s Muslim immigrant workers who cannot go home to their families at this special time of year, the Sultan of Johor and the Queen consort gave 500 food packages (lamb biriyani with an egg and potatoes, a bottle of mineral water and an apple) to the Masjid India for distribution by the National Committee for Community Services, Malaysian Red Crescent. So I joined the Red Crescent volunteers to record this event. I had visited the Masjid India a couple of weeks earlier to observe a gift-giving event for Ramadan, so I was expecting to be inside today but that was already full of worshippers. I really should remember to expect the unexpected and bring my hat to all occasions!
First we waited while the morning’s prayers were completed in a makeshift area just beside the mosque. It is a bit of a construction site at the moment with the rubble covered in a sea of shoes! Many had brought prayer mats with them so it was all quite colourful.
There were more worshippers than expected today so it got a bit crowded.
After prayers, everyone lined up to receive food parcels from the back of the truck. The gentleman in blue (below left) is the guy who had the task of preparing all this food, so he must have been up very early today!
Sitting beside the entrance to the mosque was a group of petite women and children; these were Rohingya refugees, of which Malaysia has many. Their body language was quite different from the men and they seemed to expect the Red Crescent volunteers to bring the food to them; they were very reluctant to get up to collect the food themselves.
Very few of the men here had a smile of their faces, except for this guy below who positively smiled for my camera. I think I have become too accustomed to the wonderful Malaysian smile; perhaps people can still be happy without smiling? Anyway, I found the variety of faces quite fascinating so have displayed them on an additional page at the end of this blog.
The Malaysian Red Crescent doesn’t just help in times of emergency, but also contributes by helping the local community in many different ways. You can read more about their activities by clicking here.
Click here to return to Travels in Malaysia 2019.
Click here to return to Helen Gray’s homepage.
Click here to see more about the activities of the Malaysian Red Crescent.