Monday, 16 October 2006 @ 4:23pm.

Lebaran (also known as Idul Fitri) is the big celebration after the end of Ramadan (Muslim fasting month). I believe the Arabic meaning of “Idul Fitri” is to “become holy again.” Idul Fitri falls on the 24th of next week, but some groups will celebrate it earlier. A popular tradition here is to provide gifts or parcels to family, friends, co-workers, and even government officials. There has been a recent controversy, however, since the government has ruled that people may no longer give parcels to government officials (though they can continue to give gifts to each other out of respect, politeness, etc.). This is essentially an effort to reduce corruption in the country. In any case, I went in search of the right gift today for the office staff. They have been really helpful to me, and I wanted to return the favor. Parcels come in an array of shapes, sizes, prices, decorations, and the like. For Americans, think giant Easter baskets if you need a visualization. Choosing amongst the parcels can be a daunting task since one has to consider a variety of factors like status, contents, others’ personal preferences, and price ranges.

Some of the things I thought about…

* I couldn’t buy the parcels that only had one can of Coca-Cola or one nice chocolate bar or one bottle of honey. The question would then be who amongst the staff got what? This could bring unnecessary tensions about who deserves what.

* I couldn’t buy a fancy parcel that came with a complete dish set or kitchen set since again, who would get it? You can’t really divide a dish set, right?

* I couldn’t afford the really expensive parcels even though I would have liked to buy the best ones. Some parcels can be well over USD $100. On the other hand, I didn’t want to be “too cheap” when it came to the gift.

* Some of the parcels looked expensive and cost a lot, but in actuality, I questioned the quality of the contents. For example, some of the desserts looked pretty, but were obviously dry or didn’t exactly look like they would be tasty. Another example was fancy wrapping, tissue paper, ribbons, etc., but then little or few contents inside the decorations.

In the end, I realized that I couldn’t buy any of the fancy or big parcels because I didn’t have a way to get it home or to the office. Go figure. :) I couldn’t really walk down the street with one of those things. On second thought, I probably could have taken a taxi, but traffic has been absolutely terrible and I had things to do. Walking is often faster anyway.

What I did do was purchase two large cookie tins and two large bags of coffeemix. I managed to carry stuff in my backpack and in plastic bags. I was happy with the purchases because the cookies and coffeemix came in individual sachets, which would be perfect for dividing amongst the staff. I decided to give the gifts early since I was worried that I might not be in the office much this week (it’s time to do the immigration run all over again!) and the office is closed next week. The funny thing is that I think the staff are going to eat the cookies and drink the coffee tonight or this week at each buka puasa (breaking the fast). I guess if I got a gift early I wouldn’t or couldn’t wait to open it either… :)