Since most of my experience with the celebration that ends Ramadan comes from time spent happily in Malaysia, it's the Bahasa Malay version of the traditional Eid ul-Fitr salutation, "Happy Feast of the Breaking of the Fast" that comes to my mind.

In our alphabet's rendition of the Arabic, it's "Eid saeed" or "Eid Mubarak", but no matter, it's the greeting du jour in Muslim communities all over the world right now.

For Muslims, Eid ul-Fitr is a joyful celebration of the achievement of enhanced piety. It is a day of forgiveness, moral victory and peace, of congregation, fellowship, brotherhood and unity. Muslims are not only celebrating the end of fasting, but thanking God for the help and strength that they believe He gave them throughout the previous month to help them practice self-control.

As with holidays in other religions, much focus of sentiment and festivities is aimed at children. Orphans are especially included and much generous giving goes to organizations that care for children without families this time of the year.

For the past week I've been finding stories of donations, awards and special attention directed toward orphaned kids in Brunei, Gambia, Pakistan, Ethiopia, India, and Malaysia, that highlight the spirit of giving that this festive season encourages.

Growing up as I did in typically predominately Christian neighborhoods, my first Hari Raya came as quite an eye-opener.

My oldest son and I had arrived in Kuching, the main town in Sarawak, one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo, during the last couple of days of Ramadan completely unprepared. Starved after travel, we headed out to look for food in the late morning. Being dumb tourists, we had no idea that we'd need to look toward the Chinese part of town if we wanted to find any eating establishments that would open before sunset, so we walked and walked as our blood sugar levels dropped and we got grouchier and sweatier. Someone finally explained the situation, so we survived to eat another day.

Two days later and, MAN!, did we eat!

The Muslim community in Malaysia has a tradition of open houses on Hari Raya, and welcomes are accompanied by more food than can be imagined. I went with friends with lots of friends, so the end total of homes visited was something like fourteen.

(There's an almost competitive air to the day with visitors comparing notes ... I've already been to 12 homes? Only 12? We've done 15, and it's only 2pm!)

The population of Sarawak is a cooperative combination of Muslim Malays, Chinese Buddhists, Animist Dyaks, Christians of all stripes, Hindus, and more, and homes celebrating Hari Raya welcome any and all, as do Christian homes at Christmas, Buddhist homes for Buddha's birthday, Indian homes at Depavali, and so on.

Massive amounts of food are offered and hosts hover to be sure everyone eats a bit of everything ... at every house. Not in anywhere near good Hari Raya shape, and not knowing how seriously I needed to pace myself, I was stuffed by 10 am.

That was just too bad, as ingesting more and more and more food was not only requested, but also demanded in the most gracious sense. (In one home, even beer was offered to non-Muslims.)

As well as the food, the warmth of greetings and the kindness with which I was received was overwhelming, and I will never forget the feeling of community, acceptance and peace I experienced during my first Eid.

The world is perceived to be far different than it was in 1990 when I ate my way through my premier Hari Raya celebration, but that shouldn't stop anyone from wishing those with other beliefs the best of the season.

Eid is a time of reconciliations. We could use some of those.

Selamat Hari Raya!