Malaysia festivals and events in various States

Malaysia is a small country made up of 14 smaller states. Nine of the states are headed by sultans, and the other are headed by governors. They are constitutional monarch without a clear power to rule. When the constitution was drafted before independence, a list of holidays have been stipulated and anniversary of sultans or Governors State were listed as states holidays. Many more Federal holidays were added. In total we have more than 30 holidays in a year, that does not mean that if your work, you will get 30 days off, because many of the holidays are state specific. If you work in the state of Selangor, you get the holiday on for Selangor's Sultan birtday day and not the holiday for other states.

As we are multi racial country, the holidays of the races are accepted as public holiday too. So we have holidays for the Muslims festivals, which are the Eids. We have for Chinese Festival, which is Chinese New Year and so forth. As we prosper, some other groups will start to complaint.. "how come our festivals are not included, we are Malaysian too" . So we add more holiday, like the latest were the Taipusam and Malaysian Day.

Taipusam, can be a very attractive festival for tourists. Hotels rooms are fully book. About 100 thousand Hindus will converge to Batu Cave, to celebrate the festival. Similar celebration are taking place in other states like in Penang and Pahang.

In February we have the Chinese New Year. As the Chinese calender is a lunar calender, the actual date changes. About 14% of the population are Chinese. You can see the Dragon Dance performed by the troupe, and coincidently, not all the performers are Chinese.

The other large festivals is the Hari Raya or Eid Fitri. This is one of the two Muslim celebration celebrated through out the world. It mark the end of the fasting month, and celebrated to express thanks to God for the completion of the fast.

Beside the festivals, we have many celebrating to make the historic events, such as the Independent and even the new year. Being Malaysia, everyone celebrate and join the others festivals. The concept of open house is widely practiced, where friends and neighbours take turn to visit others and they will join the the feasts.