Malaysia’s many ethnic groups celebrate Lunar New Year
The country of 30 million is home to 1.7 million Catholics. On Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, many ethnic groups get together to celebrate the New Year following to their own customs and traditions.
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) – At the start of Chinese New Year celebrations, Malaysia’s Catholic churches celebrated the Holy Eucharist in a hue of colours and customs.
The Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, which in some communities is also called the Lunar New Year, coincided with the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time.
Parishes have been adorned with red lanterns and banners with Chinese script, as well as decorations and red envelopes called Ang Pao. In some parishes, lion dance troupes complete with gongs and cymbals performed after Mass.
After the Eucharist, priests handed out mandarins, ubiquitous symbol of good luck and fortune, to parishioners.
Malaysia is a multiethnic country and its Catholic population includes Chinese, Indians, and Eurasians, as well as Dayak and Kadazan in the States of Sabah and Sarawak, in Malaysian Borneo.
Ethnic Chinese communities make up a large part of Malaysia’s 1.7 million Catholics, in a country of about 30 million people.
For some parishioners, the integration of cultural elements in their festive ritual is a solemn gesture, a reminder that Christians are "people of God" from various nations.
For Elizabeth Robert of Holy Family Church in the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur, the traits of her culture are the bases of her personhood and make her feel the fullness of being Catholic.
Elizabeth, who is Tamil Indian, told AsiaNews that earlier this month, churches celebrated Mass during the Tamil harvest festival known as Ponggol.
"During the Ponggol festival, churches performed the traditional boiling of milk as a symbol of prosperity and made decorations called kolam from many types of colourful grains like lentils, green peas, rice, maize, and others as an offering of the first fruits of God’s harvest."
According to her, being Catholic and having her own culture enable her to "spiritualise" her cultural state and Catholic faith and thus experience the full bloom of God's creation in all its splendour.
"With the arrival of the Chinese New Year, I see the oneness of God’s people and the coming of the spirit of diversity that makes us one nation and one people, all for God’s glory."
Chinese New Year is one of Malaysia’s main festivals. The others are Hari Raya Aidil Fitri (Eid), celebrated by Muslims, Gawai and Kaamatan, celebrated by the indigenous people of Sarawak and Sabah respectively, and Deepavalli, the festival of lights, celebrated by Malaysian Hindus.
Local churches have not incorporated any elements from Deepavalli because it is a religious and not a cultural feast.
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07/02/2019 17:28
