Malaysia is one of the country with multi-racial in Asia .
The major race in Malaysia is Malay, India and Chinese. The East of Malaysia which is the Borneo of
Malaysia, known as Sabah and Sarawak, consist almost 80 ethnics. This entry will focus only for the ethnics in
the Sabah an d Sarawak because their ethnics
have its own speciality and uniqueness. From their traditional costum , their culture dance until their festivals.
At the peninsular of the Malaysia,
majority of the ethnics are from Malay, Chinese, and Indian.
Malay basically will celebrate Hari
Raya Aidilfirti after a month of fasting. On the festival day, the traditional
attire for a woman are typically baju kurung that have a lot of design while
man will be wearing baju melayu. They will ask for forgiveness between each
other and visiting to their house as a symbol to make the bond between them
more closer. The famous food that will be serve
on that day are rendang, ketupat, lontong, and lot more!
Next, Chinese’s festival is Chinese
New Year as it was usually celebrated on January. The celebrations is last for
15 days and they will have a lion dance, watch fireworks, and also have an open
houses with variety of Chinese meals. They will wear cheongsam for a woman and
man will wear changshan on that day. Food that will be serve are peking duck, kung
pao chicken, Cantonese roast duck and etc. The adults have to give angpau that
is an envelope contain amount of money to the kids.
Plus, Indian will be celebrating
Deepavali also known as Diwali or Festival of Lights will be celebrating on August every year. All
hindus beliefs that it is a symbolises of good over evil. Their traditional
attire on the festival day for a women wear sarees meanwhile man will wear
classic contemporary kurta. On that ay, they will be exchange gifts,light a
lamps, decorate their house with rangoli and many more!
The major ethnics live in Sabah are Kadazandusun, Bajau, and Murut. Kadazandusun
is the largest ethnics group in Sabah and the second is Bajau. Kadazan and
dusun was combined because of their identical usage of language and culture.
Kadazandusun will celebrate their traditional
festival called Tadau Keamaatan right after the harvest. Usually during the
festivals they would be having traditional dance by their own ethnic. Besides,
they would also organize a beauty pageants called “Unduk Ngadau”. Every year,
one district in Sabah will host a International Culture Night in Sabah. It will
be held once a year where all the ethnics were gathered and they need to
perform their traditional dance in front of the people. For those who do not
have the chance to watch it live, they can watch it through television.
In Sarawak, the major ethnics is Iban,
Melanau and Malay. The Ibans usually lives at Sungai Skrang, Sungai Saribas,
Sungai Batang Lupar and , Sungai Rajang. Even though, we are living in this
modern era, they are still practicing their tradition. In Kuching, Sarawak,
there is a place called Civilization Village where there are model houses of
each ethnics such as Long House, Iban House and many more. When people visit
the village, they can enjoy watching and eating
their traditional od and dance. The major festival celebrated by the
Ibans is Hari Gawai which is on the first and second day of June. ‘Tarian
Ngajat’ is performed on that day as a symbol of gratefulness and thankful for the fortune of
living.
