Malaysian Celebration - Chinese New Year

Malaysia has a lot to offer. Most of the time, we just take things for granted.

Ushering the year of the Rabbit

We started "celebrating" Christmas 4 years ago by getting a Christmas tree. And for the last 2 years we try to celebrate all  the festivals whenever we could, just to experience the great joy of being in a multi-cultural society.

Dinah & Zaher - note the Pussy
Willow in the background.

Unfortunately, like any other sane city-dwellers, we usually head out of the city whenever the opportunity presents itself. So our attempt at these celebration is limited to what we can do before and after the festival break. So, for the past couple of years, our house is decorated to the "theme" at each festival - much to the confusion of our neighbours!

Dressing up for the occassion

This year, however, we decided to stay in town and enjoy the traffic-free KL during the Chinese New Year Festival. So we decided to have a small "Reunion Dinner" at our place. Since my culinary skills are rather limited, especially for Chinese dishes, we opt for Steam Boat Dinner. Jasmine was very excited at celebrating Chinese New Year and was ready in her red dress way before anyone arrives. Dinah too, soon join in and adorn her red Cheong Sam. Only Kamil was a bit reluctant to wear his Jacket as it is getting a bit small for him! Seeing the kids all geared up for the celebration, I too changed into a red blouse and soon Zaher followed suit.


Dinner started with Lou Sang - much to the delight of the kids, and even my mum, mother-in-law and Su (maid) joined in. Somewhat awkward with all the chopsticks flying around.

Before dinner begins, we said our usual "doa makan". After the "doa" Jasmine asked me, if its Chinese New Year, shouldn't we be saying a Chinese prayers?


Darling Jasmine, we celebrate Chinese New Year because it is a part of the Malaysian Culture and the values that it teaches us. We are muslims, that's in our hearts and no one can change that. It does not make us a lesser muslim just because we celebrate non-muslim festivals. We hope, beyond the ang pows, mandarin oranges, cookies and fireworks, you would have learned the importance of family, respect for the elders and being humble.

"O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted. "
- Surah Al-Hujarat 49.13 -