PETALING JAYA: The Hari Raya celebrations this year will be much anticipated with the easing of restrictions.

       University student Aqilah Sanadi, 23, is overjoyed at the prospect of returning home to Melaka this year after spending the previous edition at her university campus due to the interstate travel restrictions.

       “It was really sad as it was the first time I did not celebrate with my family.

       “Unfortunately, I also became a casual contact prior to the celebrations. I was unable to even enter the hall to collect the food given by the university,” she said.

       This year, Aqilah hopes to relive the Hari Raya spirit with her family while cooking dishes together.

       “I miss eating together with my relatives on the talam (tray), playing with firecrackers and also sleeping in a house filled with my cousins,” she said, adding that her family still practises eating together in a talam to strengthen family bonds.

       Lecturer Sitinurbayu Mohd Yusoff, 43, said she is ecstatic at being able to return to her hometown in Selangor after two years of celebrating Aidilfitri in Sabah.

       She is looking forward to greeting and kissing her parents while embracing them on the morning of Raya.

       For the last two celebrations, she had prepared festive delicacies before getting her husband and three children together in the living room to make video calls to family members in the peninsula.

       Noraini Mahmud, a chief executive officer of an oil and gas manufacturing company, also said she is excited about the celebrations this year.

       “Our last family gathering was in 2018,” she said.

       “It was heartbreaking during the remote celebrations as I was unable to see my elderly aunts and uncles as they were not well-versed with video calling.

       “My household members will take self-tests and isolate for a few days before we return to my in-laws’ hometown in Penang.”

       Broadcast journalist Amirah Mohd Sukarno, 23, said she is excited at the prospect of travelling back to Kelantan once again this year.

       “Both my parents’ extended families are there while we are in Selangor.”

       Meanwhile, sports officer Mohd Hidayat Ahmad Traimizi, 32, is looking forward to the food at Ramadan bazaars again.

       “When I was a teenager, the bazaar Ramadan was my daily haunt,” he said, adding that he is also looking forward to the congregational terawih prayers this year.

       Mosques are allowed to have prayers at full capacity from April 1.