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| Rayhan Hanif Usamah, Kunsan National University student from Indonesia |
Throughout the year, Ramadhan
always feels different than other months in Indonesia as majority of citizen is
Muslim. In Indonesia, you can hear some people go around the housing complex
before sunrise and yell “suhoor, suhoor” to wake up people so that people can eat
before starting to do fasting. One or two hour before the break fasting before
sunset, many sidewalks will be filled by seasonal sellers that only sell some
snacks that usually people have to break fast during Ramadhan such as fritters
or any other sweets to regain energy before having a proper meal after the
fasting ends. Without having this special tradition during Ramadhan this year,
Rayhan Hanif Usamah or usually called Rayhan will share his experience in
having Ramadhan and Eid al-Fitr in Gunsan, Jeollabuk-do, Korea.
Rayhan is a university student
from Indonesia who is currently studying mechanical engineering that focuses on
Future Automotive in Kunsan National University. As a muslim who is currently
living in Korea, Rayhan surprisingly doesn’t find it is hard to fast in Korea.
It is definitely longer than in Indonesia as he does it for approximately 16
hours and 30 minutes each day while in Indonesia it is shorter, approximately
13 hours. After having suhoor (meal consumed early in the
morning before fasting) he still has time to rest while in the afternoon, he
finishes his activities from university and arrives at his place around 50
minutes before break fast which he can spend it by cooking meal. The weather
also makes his fasting a lot easier as in May in Korea, it isn’t as hot as in
Indonesia, so it doesn’t really cause so much thirst. Rayhan also feels easy to
find halal food in Gunsan. He can buy it online as there are many Indonesians
who cook and sell delicious halal food in affordable prices. For other options,
he can directly buy such as Uzbekistani and Turkish halal food around mosque in
Gunsan. Even better, they also have halal food ingredients so that he can cook
by himself.
Even though Rayhan lives quite far from Seoul
Central Mosque, he is happy because there is a mosque too in Gunsan. Of course,
he needs to put more effort to reach the mosque compare while he was in
Indonesia. In Indonesia you only need to take a short walk to reach mosque, now
he needs to ride bus for 30 minutes. Even though it is further in distance compare
to what he used to have in Indonesia, he feels excited every time he visits the
mosque as he can find many familiar halal foods, meet friends, and of course do
break fast and prayers especially tarawih together (a night prayer during Ramadhan
after break fast) just like in Indonesia.
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| After iftar (break fast) with other muslim friends in Gunsan |
Different with Ramadhan
experience which is more or less can be handled very well, celebrating Eid
al-Fitr in Korea feels different for Rayhan. Just like when Koreans celebrating
Seollal, there is tradition to meet family during Eid al-Fitr too in Indonesia.
Besides, there are some typical Eid al-Fitr food in Indonesia such as opor ayam (braised chicken cooked with
coconut milk) and ketupat (rice
packed inside diamond-shape of woven palm leaf). This year, Rayhan celebrates Eid
al-Fitr without those foods and without his family and it makes him misses
house and family so much. During Eid al-Fitr, he did the Eid prayer at Anas Bin
Malik Mosque in Gunsan in the morning and after that he continued with taking
classes and working. Even though the celebration is not as big as at Seoul
Central Mosque in Itaewon, Rayhan finds this mosque quite feels like at home as
the preach was delivered in Indonesian.
There are of course some
similarities and differences in experiencing Ramadhan and Eid al-Fitr in
different country compare to our home country. Rayhan said, no need to worry to
have it in different country especially in Korea. More effort needed in finding
halal food and mosque or place to pray is undeniable but everything’s still
possible in Korea.
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