Hari Raya Aidilfitri is the Malay Muslim festival that marks the end of Ramadan, the fasting month, and in 2026 it fell on Saturday, 21 March, with Sunday, 22 March as the second day. Because Aidilfitri depends on the sighting of the new moon, the official Malaysia date is confirmed only a day or two beforehand and can shift by a day either way; for 2026 the federal government also gazetted Friday, 20 March as an additional holiday, making it a long weekend. What is reliable is the shape of it. Two public holidays, a wave of open houses you may well be invited to, and a city that goes notably quiet as families leave town.
In Kuching the festival has a texture you will not find on the peninsula. This is a city where Malay, Chinese, Iban, and Bidayuh families have lived next door for generations, so an open house here is genuinely mixed, and non-Muslims, expats included, are welcomed at the door rather than tolerated. For the wider calendar this sits inside, our guide to festivals in Sarawak maps out the whole year.
TL;DR: Hari Raya in Kuching
- When: Saturday, 21 March 2026, with Sunday, 22 March as the second public holiday. The federal government also gazetted Friday, 20 March as an additional holiday, making it a long weekend. Islamic dates are set by moon-sighting and are confirmed a day or two before.
- What it is: Hari Raya Aidilfitri, the Malay Muslim celebration that ends the Ramadan fasting month, also called Eid al-Fitr.
- Open houses: Families hold open houses where anyone, including non-Muslim friends, neighbours, and expats, can drop in to eat. You usually need to be invited or come with someone who was.
- What closes: Many shops, eateries, and offices shut for several days, and the streets empty as people go home to their kampung.
- The food: Ketupat, rendang, lemang, and trays of kuih raya are the markers of the day.
- Honest note: For the first few days the city runs at half speed or less, so do not arrive expecting normal service.
When is Hari Raya in 2026?
Hari Raya Aidilfitri 2026 fell on Saturday, 21 March, with Sunday, 22 March as the second day, both gazetted as public holidays in Malaysia. The federal government also declared Friday, 20 March an additional holiday, which turned the celebration into a four-day long weekend. The reason the exact day is only fixed late is the Islamic calendar. It is lunar, so Ramadan ends and Aidilfitri begins only when the new moon of the month of Syawal is sighted, and Malaysia’s authorities announce the confirmed date the evening before.
In practice the country waits. The confirmation follows the moon-sighting (rukyah) reports and is announced on national television the evening before. If you are reading this ahead of a future Raya, work to the estimated date and stay flexible by a day until the announcement. The federal public-holiday calendar published by the Malaysian government is where the official Aidilfitri date is gazetted, and it is what our Sarawak public holidays guide tracks for the full year.
What is Hari Raya Aidilfitri?
Hari Raya Aidilfitri is the festival that ends Ramadan, the month when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. “Hari Raya” means “day of celebration” in Malay, and “Aidilfitri” is the Malay form of Eid al-Fitr, the festival of breaking the fast. After a month of fasting, the day itself is about gratitude, forgiveness, and family.
The morning begins with Aidilfitri prayers at the mosque, men and many women in their best baju Melayu and baju kurung. After prayers comes a custom that defines the day: the younger generation asks forgiveness of their elders, often kneeling to seek maaf zahir dan batin, forgiveness for any wrong in word or deed over the past year. Then the eating and the open houses begin and run for days. The festival is religious at its core, but the celebration pulls in the whole neighbourhood.
What are open houses, and can expats go?
An open house (rumah terbuka) is exactly what it sounds like: a family opens their home and lays out food for anyone who comes by. You walk in, greet the hosts, eat, sit a while, and move on to the next one. During Raya, Malay families across Kuching hold them, and so do companies and community groups on a larger scale.
Here is the part that surprises newcomers. In Kuching the open house is genuinely cross-cultural, and non-Muslims are welcomed without fuss. Expats, Chinese neighbours, Dayak colleagues, all turn up, and every host I have met has seemed glad of it. My first Raya here, an Iban colleague brought me along to her Malay friend’s open house in Petra Jaya, and I spent an hour being fed rendang by an auntie I had never met who kept refilling my plate before it was empty. I was made up, as we’d say back in Manchester, properly pleased. I had braced myself to feel like an intruder. I felt like a guest.
A few things make the visit go well:
- Wait for an invitation, or come with someone who has one. Open houses are open, but you do not wander into a stranger’s home off the street. A colleague or neighbour saying “come to ours” is the green light.
- Dress modestly. Cover shoulders and knees. Traditional dress is welcome but not expected.
- Take your shoes off at the door, the same as entering any home here.
- Eat something. Accepting food is the whole point. Even a small plate is a compliment to the host.
- Greet with “Selamat Hari Raya”. Adding “maaf zahir dan batin” to a Muslim host you know is a warm touch.
What is balik kampung?
Balik kampung means “return to the village”, and it is the annual homecoming that empties Malaysia’s cities at Raya. People who have moved to Kuching, or from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur, travel back to their family home for the holidays. It is the single biggest movement of people in the Malaysian year.
In Kuching the exodus runs two ways. City-dwelling Malay families drive out to kampung in places like Lundu and Asajaya, while Sarawakians working in the peninsula fly home, filling every Kuching-bound flight for the week. The roads out of town clog the day before Raya, and then the city itself goes quiet, because so many of the people who run its shops and stalls have gone home too.
What is open and what is closed during Raya?
This is the practical question that catches visitors out, so here is the honest split. Expect most Malay-run businesses, and a good share of others, to shut from the eve of Raya through the first few days.
| Likely closed (eve through the first 2 to 4 days) | Usually open (often reduced hours) |
|---|---|
| Malay hawker stalls, warung, and kopitiams | Shopping malls: Vivacity, the Spring, CityONE |
| Many small shops and family businesses | Chain supermarkets and hypermarkets |
| Government offices and banks (on the holiday days) | Hotels and their restaurants |
| Some clinics and small services | Hospitals and emergency services |
| Mamak and many eateries on the day itself | 24-hour convenience stores |
A few real consequences. Grab keeps running but with fewer drivers and longer waits, especially the day before Raya when everyone is travelling. Some Chinese-run coffee shops stay open and become the reliable place for a meal, the mirror image of how Malay eateries stay open during Chinese New Year in Kuching. If you take regular medication or want fresh produce, buy it before the eve, because the wet markets thin out for the best part of a week.
Here is the downside I am not going to soften: for several days around Hari Raya, much of Kuching simply shuts down, shops, eateries, and offices close, and the streets go quiet from balik kampung, so arriving as a tourist expecting full services is a real mistake. This is not a minor inconvenience you can route around. The city you read about, the one that runs on cheap hawker food at every corner, is largely switched off, and no amount of planning brings those closed stalls back for the days they are gone.
What food do people eat at Hari Raya?
A handful of dishes signal that it is Raya and not any other day:
- Ketupat. Rice steamed inside woven palm-leaf pouches into firm, diamond-shaped cakes, sliced and eaten with everything. The woven ketupat shape is the symbol of the festival, on every Raya decoration.
- Rendang. Beef or chicken slow-cooked in coconut milk and spices until the sauce dries down and the meat goes tender and dark. The dish people travel across town for.
- Lemang. Glutinous rice and coconut milk cooked inside a bamboo tube over a fire. It pairs with rendang and with serunding, a sweet meat floss.
- Kuih raya. The cookies and small sweets, pineapple tarts, kuih makmur, suji, that fill the containers on every Raya table.
- Satay and laksa. Many hosts add favourites alongside the classics, so do not be surprised by a pot of Sarawak laksa at a Kuching open house.
Most of this is cooked over the days before Raya, and the first plate someone hands you is rarely the last.
How does Raya in Kuching feel different from the peninsula?
The difference is the mix. In a peninsular city, Raya can feel like a Malay festival everyone else observes from the outside. In Kuching, where no single group is the whole story, it reads more like a neighbourhood occasion that happens to be Malay-hosted. The same diversity that shapes Gawai Dayak in June shapes Raya in spring.
You see it in the guest list. A Malay open house in Kuching will have Chinese and Dayak friends in the room, and the same families turn up at each other’s celebrations through the year, Raya, then Gawai, then Chinese New Year. The reciprocity is real and lived, not staged for visitors. The conversations switch between Malay, English, and whatever dialect the table shares. It is a quieter, more domestic festival than a parade, and that intimacy is the point.
How should you plan around Hari Raya in Kuching?
Treat it as a planned slowdown, not a normal week. The visitors who struggle are the ones who assumed the city would run as usual.
- Confirm the date close to the time. Raya 2026 landed on 21 March; for any future year, check the official announcement, which comes a day or two before.
- Stock up before the eve. Food, cash, medication. Assume your usual stall is closed for several days.
- Find your fallback meals. Note which malls and Chinese-run shops near you stay open.
- Say yes to any open-house invitation. It is how you see Raya from the inside rather than from the closed shopfronts, and the invitation is genuinely meant.
- Book travel early. Flights and the better lodges fill up fast, and roads out of town are heavy the day before.
If you are visiting rather than living here, the kindest advice is to come a few days after Raya rather than during it, when the stalls are back open and the city has filled up again.
Where to start
If Raya 2026 is on your radar, do one concrete thing now: tell the Malay colleagues or neighbours you already know that you would love to see an open house, and ask what their family does. In my experience that conversation is what gets you through a door, the same way it does at Gawai. In 2026 the day itself was Saturday, 21 March, and the woven ketupat decorations going up in the malls in early March are your real signal that it is close.
Last updated: June 2026. Hari Raya 2026 fell on Saturday, 21 March (Day 2 Sunday, 22 March), with Friday, 20 March gazetted as an additional federal holiday; what’s-open notes based on Kuching, prior Raya periods.
Keep exploring Kuching Insider: Festivals in Sarawak, Sarawak’s public holidays, Gawai Dayak, and Chinese New Year in Kuching.