Festival: How about it in your country?
By lkbooi
@lkbooi (16070)
Malaysia
November 7, 2007 11:47pm CST
I live in a multiracial country where different races have their respective festivals. Today our Hindu friends here are celebrating their grand festival, the Hari Deepavali. (Hari in my national languague means Day) It is a public holiday in my country so that our race, like Malays and Chinese, are showing the joys of this grand occasion as well.
Early yesterday my Hindu neighbors had already sent me some traditional confectionary cookies and cakes, some are as shown in the attachment. According to our social custom here, I have to return them with some sugar after receiving the gift. For convenience I gave them an Ang Pow (A red packet with money inside) instead, for the appreciation of allowing us to share the joy of their festival.
One of my colleagues who married a Hindu husband always invites me to her open house entertainment on this festival.
Hi, dear friends here,
Do you share the joy of the festival celebration with your neighbors or your friends?
Firing of crackers is quite popular during any festive seasons here. How about it in your place?
My grandest festival is The Chinese New Year, what is yours?
Hope you enjoy this topic, thanks a lot, my dear friend.
4 people like this
5 responses
@yanstill (1490)
• China
10 Nov 07
i love festivals too.but i dont know about the Hindu festivals you mentioned,it's been a long time since i am too busy to celebrate festivals.now i am waiting for the Christmas and the Spring Festival,it's good to spend days with friends,not work or other things.
my favorate festival is also the celebration of new year,i can be together with my family again and i love to say happy new year,feels good of a new start.
1 person likes this
@lkbooi (16070)
• Malaysia
11 Nov 07
Hi dear yanstill, hope you are getting well. I presume that you are in the college, studying hard now and heading for the final exam the coming year.
In our custom here during festival only the married people would give Hong Bao to the younger generations. According to the custom here I suppose that you are going to raise as the Hong Bao giver lol...
Have a nice time and wishing all the best.
@cheongyc (5072)
• Malaysia
8 Nov 07
I am living in a multiracial country too. And we celebrate the major festival of our own and also festival of other races. Actually we do not really celebrate together, but we share the same public holidays. On the festivals, we will send our greetings to our friends of other races and during their festivals. We usually send greetings cards or text messages. Besides, when I was a young kid, I was asked by my grandparent to send cookies to Indian neighbours and they will give ur sugar as a friendly token.
@cheongyc (5072)
• Malaysia
11 Nov 07
It's already in my distant memory, where a small kid like me, holding a platter of cookies, walked tens of meters away to the Indian neighbour's house. I couldn't recall wether my parents accompanying me or not. But I think they did showed me the way. The neighbours are so friendly and I am glad that we live in multi-racial nations with harmony atmosphere. Some the of multi-racial countries in the world is totally different from what we have here. It's terrible where genocide and massacre happening due to inter-racial conflict. I really hope that the violence can be stopped and the people of these countries can live happily.
1 person likes this
@lkbooi (16070)
• Malaysia
9 Nov 07
It is nice to live in a multiracial country where we could celebrate the main festival of our own and also those of other races. The thing we enjoy most is the common public holidays of course lol... By sending greetings and attending the open house functions mutually could really promote the feeling of well being and harmony among the races in our country. I am quite touched to learn that you were asked by your grandparent to send cookies to your Hindu neighbors when you were a kid. Just imagine a small kid would feel when he was doing such a mission!
@lkbooi (16070)
• Malaysia
18 Nov 07
You story of sending the festive cookies to your neighbors recalled me the scene of my little boy who did like readily to send the platter of cookies to our neighbors of other races during Chinese New Year eve. Most properly was because he could receive Ang Pao then lol ...
Yeah, we are so lucky to live in a country where different races could live harmoniously together as a big family and sharing joys during any festive seasons.
@raulgc01 (306)
• Philippines
8 Nov 07
Since the Philippines is a Catholic country, our more joyous festival are the "Town Fiestas" or town feasts, every town here in the Philippines celebrates their own town fiesta in honor of their Patron Saints. Imagine, the Philippines has over 1200 towns, each one having their own Patron Saint. The more popular fiestas are the "Ati-Atihan of Kalibo, Aklan whose Patron saint is Santo Niño or the toddler Jesus Christ, tourists go to this town to celebrate with the villager. Villagers dressed in ATI or native of Kalibo, dance in the streets for almost the whole day. In every town fiesta, foods are served freely to anyone who come to a house. We have also the Mascarra of Bacolod, Sinulog, etc. In Quiapo, Manila, in the capital city, the fiesta is celebrated with a procession of their patron saint the Black Nazarene (Black Jesus Christ), in January, hundreds of thousands of devotees attend this procession. The only foreign festival that we enjoy is also the Chinese New Year, Kung Hei Fat Choi!
@lkbooi (16070)
• Malaysia
9 Nov 07
Hi raug0i. I feel very glad to read your detailed description about the various festivals and the celebrations related. I am quite amazed to learn that there are lots of grand occasions associated with the various festivals. I am indeed much induced and touched by the joyous atmosphere around your whole country during this festive season. I am quite interested with the dances of the natives I think it must be very fancy. Thanks for your advance greeting. The coming Chinese New Year will fall on the 7th of Feb 2008. I hope you share the fortune of Kung Hei Fat Coi too. Bye...
1 person likes this
@lkbooi (16070)
• Malaysia
5 Dec 07
Hi raulgc01, you are most welcome. I had learnt quite a lot of the festival activities in your cuuntry from your valuable information and are quite fascinated with all those attractive and unique festive celebrations. You are deserved to get the br.
Happy mylotting and with best wishes.
@lkbooi (16070)
• Malaysia
8 Nov 07
I could imagine the fancy and wonderful occasion of that festival in your country. I think most of you are having much fun and enjoy really during the merry festival. I wonder there is any procession around in your place for this fantastic show. I believe there are lots of colorful and stylish masks for sale in the streets before the grand occasion to activate the festive atmosphere.
@fanji008 (775)
• China
9 Nov 07
Hi,there! In my country there're also many different festivals. We have labor's day,National Day,Dragen Boat Festival,Mid-autumn Day and Spring Festival. We celebrate all of them. But Spring Festival is the one we pay most attention to cause it's the real begining of the next year. We all family members get together and have a big dinner. We chat with each other,kids play fireworks,adults cook food and so on. We're looing forward to this Spring Festival. Hopefully you'll enjoy it too:) Thanks for raising this discussion. Have a nice day!
1 person likes this
@lkbooi (16070)
• Malaysia
10 Nov 07
Hi dear fanji, Chines love festivals. There are lots of festivals the whole year long. Each festival has its own significance and some related to historical events like Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-autumn Day. Whereas the Chinese New Year is related to spring season during which the people have already harvested their crops and celebrate grandly at that period of time. Though there is no spring season in my country, we Chinese here, still celebrate the Chinese New Year as part of our traditional customs. Anyhow this grand festival signifies the well beginning of that whole year.
