"ngunjung"

ngunjung is a term in java language - my original mother tounge. sad to admit the words in java that i know of can be counted with fingers. my mak and abah knows to speak the language but hardly ever converse with it at home. and i notice that when we visit our family, my uncles, unties and cousins will switch to malay when talking to us, mak abah included. so, that left us feeling rather ackward when balik kampung during raya when we were children...

now back to "njunjung"

starting from the 25th ramadhan (as observed), the java will cook like the eid is tomorrow. the reason? they want to give their neighbours, close/elder relatives, the elders and respected figures in their village or housing area. and java can create 1001 reasons to give away food, really. we cook special red and white sweet rice porridge on our birthdays, we give to our neighbours during which we will ask forgiveness from them if we ever do wrong to them. when the mother is cooking for the children, we will ask our neighbours forginveness on their behalves and asking them to treat our children like their own (read : teach them when they do wrong or at least inform us if they see our children did wrong) - yup... that is us, the java people (i do not think many java still practice this though) are generous lot i may say. notice that i use they and we interchangeably? i am proud to admit that i am third generation of java from the java island who is well known for their hardworking, generous and good neighbour attitude. but almost immediately will feel belittled when asked if i know how to speak the language because i do not :P

so back to "ngunjung" again. since my parents are the elderly in our neighbourhood and my father being the Quran teachers, the imam of the masjid, the naib qadhi of the muqim, we receive a lot of food starting from yesterday. when i say a lot, i really mean a lot. and the dishes is like what we usually have during the first raya - ketupat, rendang, lontong, kuah kacang, ayam masak merah, sambal tempe etc. mak doesn't have to cook anymore if abah doesn't have to have masak asam pedas on the table everyday. and because there are plenty of it, mak usually will give to our chinese neighbours and one family who has 10 growing up children.

to think of it, it is we the java people way of doing what preached By Prophet Muhammad on giving foods and drinks to those who want to open fast, perhaps.