Pesta Raya@Ubin; A Hari Raya Celebration That Will Go Down In Pulau Ubin's History
Hi All!
One does not simply celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri without exercising the term, "Balik Kampong". And it was on June 16th, 2019 when for the first time in recent Ubin history, the descendants of the Pulau Ubin community returned back to their village to celebrate Hari Raya together in what is considered Singapore's last and final kampong.
Over 350 former residents returned back to Pulau Ubin to celebrate Hari Raya together with their families, relatives, long-lost friends and loved ones; and it was such a moving, if not emotional experience for not just me but for everyone who was there.
While the celebrations along with the various activities prepared for them would only start at 4pm, nearly over a hundred of them were already at the Malay kampong by 2.30pm, and there were even some who already stayed over the night before just out of pure excitement and anticipation!
Welcome home! Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
Regardless of race, language and religion. Friendships aren't bound by the colours of our skin here on Ubin. Photo courtesy of MJ Photography
We got to witness so many elderly people who have not stepped back onto the island after many years, some even decades since they have moved out of their island home. They have all returned, bringing along their children and even grandchildren and it was a show of how huge the Ubin community has grown over all these years. Even those who have since faced difficulties in travelling back to the island due to their immobility; their supposed burdens were lifted by the hardworking volunteers from the Accessible Ubin team whom deserves recognition.
Colin (in black baju kurung) from Accessible Ubin works hard in bringing our wheelchair-bound residents back to join in the fun! Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
Many hugged each other extremely tightly and some even shed tears of joy and happiness as they finally got to see each other after so many years apart. I almost can't help but hold back my tears too watching so many of these elderly former residents being reunited on the place where they proudly called and hopefully still call, home.
There's no better background for a family portrait than our kampong house! Photo courtesy of MJ Photography
But along the road also makes a good background too for this family! Photo courtesy of MJ Photography
The winner for most OOTD couple for Pesta Raya@Ubin goes to Hisam Rahmat and his lovely wife. Not that there was a competition anyway, hehe. Photo courtesy of MJ Photography
For the current residents however, they decided to do something extremely awesome. Because they knew that former residents would return, everyone of them decided to do an open house of their own! Every house down the stretch of the Malay kampong had a feast prepared for everyone. We are talking about the best lontongs, ketupats, rendangs, ayam masak merah, chicken curry, sambal goreng, roti boyan, kuihs and tarts and just so much more! Not only were the sights and sounds amazing that afternoon, the smell was heavenly, too.
Before makan must take picture! Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
Lontongs were a great hit for Cik Rosmala's side. Photo courtesy of MJ Photography
Pak Ahmad had a buffet of dishes outside his house! Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
Our SHS interns chowed down to Cik Habsah's signature Roti Boyan and Fried Macaroni! Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
It was because of their potluck parties and open house, that the current residents helped the former residents feel right back at home. It really was such a heartwarming sight to see everyone smiling, laughing and just having a really great time going house to house, enjoying a sumptuous meal and just celebrating Hari Raya together as one big kampong. It was as though the entire Kampong Sungei Durian bounced back to life.
Aside from the great food, we also had marvelous performances by various Malay arts performing groups such as Variasi Performing Arts, Soundjammz Events and PSTje. I am still extremely thankful for all of them, who wholeheartedly and sincerely wanted to perform for our residents voluntarily, knowing how special it would mean for them and the residents to be performing our Malay arts in Singapore's final Malay kampong on Pulau Ubin. The performances were lined up at hourly intervals, with the first being the Malay Dance followed by Kompang and ending off the celebrations with Dikir Barat.
The Malay Dance performance was proudly presented to us by Variasi Performing Arts.
Photo courtesy of MJ Photography
Variasi Performing Arts is one of the national traditional-contemporary Malay arts organisation that has been established since 2001. Variasi provides platform for young artistes and youths to create new ideas and produce performance as well to showcase to the public. Variasi includes the Artis Tari (Dance), teater variasi and cilik skool with a total of 50 activists. Till today they have presented and produce over 100 community shows and productions. They won National Day Silver Award in 2010.
I'm pretty sure they also won the hearts of the makciks there as well as right after their first item, their second item involved members of the audience to join in as well. Those who got called up to the front had a fun time dancing the Joget Lambak together with our dancers. Even I got called up to the front, so why not learn something new and have fun doing it, too?
The Malay dance is often well-known for its dances which entails beauty, grace and poise. Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
Learning how to do the 'Joget Lambak' was fun and actually pretty simple now to think of it, hehe! Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
Right after the first performance, our charismatic emcees Steven and Khadijah, prompted everyone to get their hands and legs involved with the various traditional games and activities set up all around the Malay kampong. Towards Pak Ahmad's house, there were games such as chapteh and sepak takraw and we had gasing at Cik Kamariah's house towards the back with five stones and congkak set up in a nice gazebo in between the two houses. The respective game stations were manned by our energetic Singapore Heritage Society interns, who really helped to bring out the playful spirit in our residents both young and young-at-heart.
Photo courtesy of Singapore Heritage Society
Come and play some congkak and five stones with us! Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
May we interest you in some chapteh? Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
Colourful chapteh flying everywhere as the residents get their sickest kicks on. Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
We also had a photo booth station right in front of Cik Osman's house, with beautiful props and clothes for everyone to take nice photos with. There were quite a lot of people who really had a fun time in that station, and why wouldn't they as they got the chance to have their photos taken by our wonderful photographers. One of them is Mr Muhammad Juhari, more affectionately known by his friends as MJ, who had been a very active and passionate photographer on Ubin for many years.
Photo courtesy of MJ Photography
Photo courtesy of MJ Photography
Not to mention, we also had a ketupat weaving station just right next to the main stage at Cik Bujang's house. Ketupat weaving is a favourite pastime for our residents as it really is an essential part of the Malay culture, too. Days before Hari Raya Aidilfitri on Pulau Ubin in the past, many of the residents would actually get their young coconut fronds harvested either by themselves or hiring a friend to get the job done. This year, to carry on with the same tradition, I am very happy that NParks Pulau Ubin has agreed to help to provide us with some local Ubin young coconut fronds for our residents to weave their ketupats.
Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
At the next hourly mark, we had the kompang performance happily brought to us by Soundjammz Events.
Photo courtesy of MJ Photography
Soundjammz Events is a new and young kompang group that not only specialises in kompang performances, but also in emceeing, deejay services and other professional audio-related functions. Their talents and passionate performers helps in bringing life to any event and Pesta Raya@Ubin definitely saw them living up to their promise.
Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
Residents were entertained with the loud thunderous claps of the kompang and even a silat performance by the kompang performers themselves! To have seen such a stellar performance by the talented people from Soundjammz Events, it really pumped up the adrenaline of everyone in the kampong. It was such a shame that I missed out on this as I had already left to the Public Jetty to await the arrival of our guest-of-honour.
Afterwards, everyone resumed back to their games, activities and Hari Raya visiting. Honestly at that period of time, the weather was forecast in the previous day that we were supposed to be expecting thundery showers with gusty winds over the eastern part of Singapore. But all praises be to God, Most Gracious Most Merciful, for He has blessed us with beautiful clear weather. I believed God even had a surprise planned for us towards the later part of the evening, too - which I will share later on.
Kids playing sepak takraw in baju kurung in such a bright and sunny afternoon! Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
Our guest-of-honour was Second Minister for National Development Mr Desmond Lee. Mr Desmond, who was also the Chairman of the Friends of Ubin Network (FUN) arrived at the jetty right on time at 5pm dressed in a bright red batik shirt which makes him blend very well into the crowd too. We boarded a van and made our way straight into Cik Kamariah's house, whom had specially requested his presence.
All of us, together with Cik Kamariah's family sat down together in their lovely ibu rumah and it really felt like just the kind of thing we could expect everyday back in the kampong when we had guests over. We were served with aromatic cups of tea and delicious servings of traditional kuih. Did you know that Cik Kamariah had always been celebrating Hari Raya with her extended family on Ubin for the past 12 years and counting? With Pesta Raya@Ubin, she was even more excited and happy to see everyone else around and that this year's celebration was more than ordinary for her family.
After a nice casual conversation over tea, we made our way over to Cik Rosmala's house whom also requested the presence of Mr Desmond Lee. We walked down the game stations and along Jalan Ubin, greeting and shaking hands with all the residents there. It was at this moment I remembered a random but almost powerful thought.
Candidly smiling into the camera as I bring 2M Desmond Lee along Jalan Ubin. Photo courtesy of MJ Photography
In my first ever FUN meeting since joining back in August 2018, I offered a suggestion on how we could make Pesta Ubin 2019 interesting. I noticed that Pesta Ubin had been coinciding with the fasting month and Hari Raya for quite a number of years, yet there were no festive celebration done to celebrate Hari Raya on Ubin. Furthermore, it had also been wiped out of recent memory to hear about any form of Hari Raya celebration back on the island, too. So, as though by fate I asked "How about we do a Hari Raya celebration on Pulau Ubin since Pesta Ubin takes place during the festive season?" Jokingly, everyone in attendance said they have found the one to finally present that idea. Funnily enough, I was the only Malay FUN member at the time, so if the pieces fit together - you get the picture. There were times where I felt like regretting my words, but now I can confidently say that it was all worth it.
Cik Munir, Cik Rosmala, myself and 2M in front of their lovely new home. Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
Right, anyway we finally walked into Cik Rosmala's house which had just went through a major restoration and renovation project, following a durian tree which collapsed onto the house, which took the couple nearly a decade to complete just by themselves. It was not until early 2019 in the months leading towards Pesta Raya@Ubin that the renovation process accelerated. It was as though Cik Rosmala and husband, Cik Munir were so excited to know that a Hari Raya celebration was going to happen on Ubin and they wanted to make sure their house was ready by then. Fortunately, the lovely couple got the chance to proudly show their new home to their families, friends and now even the minister himself.
Cik Munir sharing his experiences on rebuilding the house to our GOH. Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
I for one, am extremely happy and excited for them. To have witnessed their labour in rebuilding their home from nearly scratch, through their sharing of photos and videos on the progress of their home and their constant stories of how much they loved their previous kampong house and kampong life, it was a really emotional day for them to see their house turned into a home. Mr Desmond was also very proud of them and commended them for their amazing efforts and unhindered kampong spirit and love for their island home.
And finally it was time for the last performance that would bring Pesta Raya@Ubin to a grand close, we had the Dikir Barat performance proudly presented by PSTje.
Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
PSTje is an all-boys team from Temasek Polytechnic’s Dikir Barat (TPDK) group. Formed in 1998, PSTje consists of spirited and vibrant members with a mutual love for the traditional Malay art form. Active in the local Dikir Barat scene, PSTje has managed to clinch innumerous awards in tertiary competitions since 2010.
Sing it loud, sing it proud. Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
The funny part is when the lead would interact with the residents, and would always drop massive pickup lines that would make the crowd go wild! Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
The wonderful chorus and melodious voices of our thirty-over performers really made everyone proud of their Malay arts and culture. Their song choices were also amazing as it reflected about the life of the Malays and how we as a race have progressed so much while still being rooted to our traditions and heritage.
After the event, everyone made their way back down to the Assembly Area in the Main Village either on foot or by the free vans provided. Over there, former and current residents were spoiled for choice over the wonderful and tasty food specially prepared and catered by Chilli Api Catering. There were all sorts of Malay focused cuisine and sweet snacks and desserts. We even had mats graciously loaned out by Masjid Darul Ghufran laid out too for those who wished to eat the old traditional way and we even saw kids playing around on them.
Seated on the chair or on the floor, everyone had a fun makan time with family and neighbours! Photo courtesy of MJ Photography
Also to simulate the lighting-up of the kampong in the past, we even had a countdown celebration for our own version of the kampong light-up at around Maghrib time that day. The Assembly Area was lit with beautiful warm-white LED lightbulbs and it gave everyone an extremely warm and cozy feeling. Now remember about the surprise from God that I mentioned about earlier in the post, well to even add on the ambience of the dinner, we were greeted with the bright clear view of the full moon!
Such a cozy and warm way to be enjoying dinner under beautiful lights! Photo courtesy of BERITAmediacorp
Photo courtesy of BERITAmediacorp
Photo courtesy of EJ
After everyone had a nice meal, no event is properly closed without a massive photo-taking session with everyone from the Pulau Ubin community inside.
Selamat Hari Raya from the descendants of the Pulau Ubin community! Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
Afterwards, everyone were free to go back home in the mainland with the free bumboats provided while some stayed back to munch on the leftovers. The kids too had a fun time playing with the fireworks sparklers and it really was such a nice way to bring Pesta Raya@Ubin to a close.
Happy Birthday Singapo-- eh, wait wrong celebration. Look at all the kids having the time of their young lives! Photo courtesy of NParks Pulau Ubin
All in all, safe to say Pesta Raya@Ubin had been an amazing success and I would like to take this opportunity to say that it has been a humbling yet honourable experience for me to have been the organising chairman of this historic event. It was also such a lovely way for me to be reconnected once more with every other descendant of the Pulau Ubin community and truth be told, many of the former residents have bombarded me with requests for Pesta Raya@Ubin to now become an annual thing.
If God wills it, we can look forward to more festive celebrations happening again on Pulau Ubin in the years to come. I hope that our Pulau Ubin community have emerged closer and tighter following Pesta Raya@Ubin and I hope that it shall continue to do so for the many years and generations to come.
There's more to Pulau Ubin than just nature and recreation. It's the people, community, culture and heritage that brings life to this amazing island, too.
My heartfelt and sincere gratitude for the following groups and people who have made Pesta Raya@Ubin not just possible, but successful as well:
Events
Friends of Ubin Network (FUN)
Hup Chung Tentage System Pte Ltd
Kawan Ubin
MJ Photography
NParks Pulau Ubin
PSTje
Residents of Pulau Ubin
Ria Tan
Singapore Heritage Society
Siti Khadijah Mohd Fawzi
Soundjammz Events
Steven Lee
Variasi Performing Arts
Finance
National Parks Board (NParks)
Kawan Ubin
Food and Beverages
Ah Ma Drink Stall
Cheong Lian Yuen Coffee Shop
Chilli Api Catering
Cik Habsah Sulong
Cik Kamariah Abdullah
Cik Rosmala Jani
Kawan Ubin
Pak Ahmad's Drink Stall
Season Live Seafood Provision Shop
Yak Hong Provision Shop
Logistics
AWWA
Energy Market Authority (EMA)
Hup Chung Tentage System Pte Ltd
Lorong Halus Jetty
Mao Sheng Quanji Construction Pte Ltd
Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA)
Masjid Darul Ghufran
Ministry for Social and Family Development
NPCC Camp Resilience
Outward Bounds Singapore (OBS) Pulau Ubin
Singapore Food Authority (SFA)
SPD
Manpower
Accessible Ubin
Bumboat Operators
Kawan Ubin
NParks Pulau Ubin Volunteers
Pulau Ubin Taxi Service
Singapore Heritage Society
and
Second Minister for National Development Mr Desmond Lee for gracing our occasion, all former and current Ubin residents and my beloved family for their unwavering support for me and especially my mother, for her constant sharing of her love for Ubin and the kampong way of life and undying prayers and blessings for me to continue doing good for the people of Ubin.
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Of course, I can't possibly share with you every single photo that was taken during Pesta Raya@Ubin on this post, and the ones that are might probably not bring enough justice to the full atmosphere of the day - but what you can do though is to take a look at all the photos on MJ Photography's Facebook page. Here's the links to the various albums he prepared for the event!
"Pesta Raya@Ubin Album 1"
"Pesta Raya@Ubin Album 2"
"Pesta Raya@Ubin Volunteers"
In fact, if you #pestarayaubin on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, there's a high chance you get to see even more pictures that our residents, guests and volunteers took of the event as well!
Pesta Raya@Ubin also appeared in the Malay news the following day on June 17th, 2019. Watch the video and read the news article in Malay here.
Don't worry, I've also taken the time to translate the article into English and you can read about it here.
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"Pesta Raya@Ubin Album 1"
"Pesta Raya@Ubin Album 2"
"Pesta Raya@Ubin Volunteers"
In fact, if you #pestarayaubin on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, there's a high chance you get to see even more pictures that our residents, guests and volunteers took of the event as well!
Pesta Raya@Ubin also appeared in the Malay news the following day on June 17th, 2019. Watch the video and read the news article in Malay here.
Don't worry, I've also taken the time to translate the article into English and you can read about it here.
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May Pulau Ubin thrive again, with its people in its heart.
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