Unfortunately for some (if not, most) of us, “balik kampung” is still something we can’t do. Especially for those who are working in different locations, away from our home towns or states.
Thanks to current technology, we could still celebrate Aidilfitri with distant loved ones through virtual means. These include via group-based video and voice calls, e-greeting cards, and even utilising virtual banking or e-payment for sending out duit raya. Just in case you missed it, you can refer to our previous article that was published last year on how to celebrate Hari Raya digitally.
For this year, we would like to share with our readers another cool way to celebrate the occasion with your loved ones via video or voice conferencing, but with an “Open House” inspired twist. Similar to how it is done in real life, this concept allows you to create an open invitation to both family and friends, enabling them to “drop by” at anytime or at a preferred time during Hari Raya to catch up or to hang out.
So rather than visiting physically, these visits are done through apps such as Facebook Messenger, Google Meet, Skype, or Zoom. As most of us are aware by now, these applications allow users to organise multi-user video and voice sessions. But for this concept, rather than creating a session and directly inviting friends and family to join in, you’ll be relying on the “join/invite by URL” feature that are available on these apps.
Undoubtedly, I’m sure there are other applications and platforms that are capable of handling this as well. Just bear in mind that the three I mentioned are just my personal recommendations, and are the best used to demonstrate this approach. It’s also worth pointing that these apps enable non-platform specific users to join in, sparing them from registering a new account just for the video/voice conferencing sessions. Due to the closed door approach of Clubhouse, we won’t be including it or any similar apps in this article.
Moving on. Once you’ve created your session on one of the four aforementioned platforms, simply copy the URL and share it on your social media page (ie: Facebook) as an open invitation. For a more manageable virtual Open House, we highly recommend sharing your post to only close friends and family, and also set a preferred time frame for the session.
For example: “Doing an virtual Open House on