We enjoy peace, harmony and prosperity despite the country being populated by multi-racial and multi-religion people. McDonalds even offer a wholly Malaysian creation of "Prosperity Burgers" ;p Since its introduction in 1994, it has been so successful that countries like Singapore and Hong Kong have followed suit!
The upside of having multi-racial and multi-religion people are multi-selection of food. From the authentic to the hybrid. Nobody will die of starvation in Malaysia. Even if you cannot cook to save your life, no worries. If you are hungry at 3am.. there are bound to be some eateries within or near your neighbourhood that open 24/7. That is why it is not surprising that some of Malaysians "live to eat" instead of "eat to live". Tales of people driving hundreds of kilometres away just to eat a plate of some delicious food are not uncommon ;p
Besides that, we also enjoy many public holidays due to our multi-cultural and religion celebrations. Today is Chinese Lunar New Year. May this Year of Snake brings us much joy and happiness. May Malaysia continues to prosper and blessed with peace and harmony. Something that we should never ever take for granted in our quest for personal glory or agenda.
Chinese New Year is the second biggest festival in Malaysia. The biggest festival is Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. It was celebrated after the Malay-Muslims (comprise of more than 60% of the population) have successfully completed 30 days of fasting. Hari Gawai, Hari Raya Haji, Deepavali, Christmas and Thaipusam are among other major celebrations in this country.
To commemorate the festivities, the shopping malls will try to out do each other with creative decorations. What I observed is the grandeur of the decorations does not reflect the "importance" (for lack of better word) of the festival. For one thing, Christmas decorations are the most grand despite it being celebrated by less than 10% of the population. I suppose it was the most commercial compared to others. Who can resist the lure of Christmas trees and presents huh?
Over the years, I've taken some pictures of the malls' decorations using my phone-cameras (so do excuse the quality.. hehe). The pictures are still all over the place. I'm still searching for them in my other computers. I will update the album whenever I found them ;)
You may access them at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mkhasha.n.travels/. Go to the photo albums.
Njoy!!
