Christmas in Malaysia ???

[expat1609]

Dear forumers,

as i spend my christmas holiday back home in europe every year, i never got to know what christmas looks like back in malaysia.
in here it is the biggest family festival, hell of commerce, and it is a happening like raya reunion dinner and d'vali in one (a 2 week school holiday and so a 2 week leave is almost compulsary )
to those who celebrate christmas in malaysia i would like to know how christmas-time, -eve and -day looks for you.
is there santa for the kids as well, is it the biggest festive season for christians in malaysia as well, or is this still chinese new year, d'vali...

anyway a merry merry x-mas to all of you

[tupai]

Xmas time! Yipppeee!!! Oh, that was when i was a kiddo. I looked forward to lotsa nicely wrapped gifts from santa (who poped in thru the back kitchen door when we were asleep lah...

Xmas time! Alrite! Lets Party! thats was when as young adult, up&coming executive ready to paint the town hot-rod red with all available & unavailable santarinas...receiving gifts become low-low priority. Aiyah, no time to waste at home...must go out NOW! lest all the santarinas kena sapu already!

Xmas time? Oh? so soon? Ok...now must buy presents for all the kiddos. KL is as commercial (not as festive as spore/london/hkong/NY), all shopping complexes deco themselves in Xmas theme. Their objective is to get us to spend, spend, spend...

Then we come home,. nicely gift wrapped all the goodies. Put 'em under a twinkling plastic pine tree and wait for Xmas eve.
Comes THE eve, we makan nicely,then kiddos gathered around the pine tree (young adults & teenagers some how went missing immediately afetr dinner???) and Yipppeeeee! they got what santa wanted to give them. Around midnite...MERRY XMAS to all....and some adults still very young at heart, will sneak off to a club somewhere in Summit and boogie and party the nite until 4.30am...hic!

MERRY XMAS to all..hic!

Yang Amat Bergembira lato tupai

p/s we get to repeat this during Chinese New Year next month
Its same same storyline, you only need to substitute 'nicely wrapped gifts from santa' to 'angpow packets from elders'...also substitute 'santarinas to chinese-hotties in g-string.' and 'Merry Xmas to Keong Hee Huat Chai.' or universally in mandarin 'Gong Xi Fatt Cai"

[isarahim]

Are even the Brits and Aussies saying 'Santa Claus' these days in lieu of 'Father Cristmas'?

Looks like this originally Dutch-German 'Sant Nicolaus' later abbreviated in the US to 'Sant(a) Claus' is gaining traction everywhere now. The power of Disney?

[Teeque]

....The power of Disney?

No, it's the power of money and lure of profits....

[USJ27Resident]

Christmas... sadly, has become more and more commercialised ~ in malaysia and evrywhere else on earth...

I just hope that the true meaning of christmas will still prevail through all these commercialisation.

ps. and btw, can someone tell us, since when "santa claus" became the main emcee... instead of Christ.... on christmas day...

to all, a blessed christmas and may the new year promises a new hope and beginning in God's grace and mercy....

[isarahim]

I just hope that the true meaning of christmas will still prevail through all these commercialisation. ps. and btw, can someone tell us, since when "santa claus" became the main emcee... instead of Christ.... on christmas day...

The key issue here is that the festival of 'Christmas' is older than 'Christ' by several thousand years. It is not so that Christmas has suddenly become commercialised, it has always been so. It's predecessors Yule, Saturnalia, Winter Solstice etc. were all commercial feasts and have been so before the emergence of monotheism.

Saturnalia, for instance, commenced on the 17th Dec and ended at the Midwinter Solstice on the 25th Dec. During Saturnalia the Romans feasted, postponed all business and warfare, exchanged gifts, and temporarily freed their slaves.

The first mentioning of any sort of birthday celebration for Jesus is by Bishop Clement of Alexandria about 200 A.D. He states that some congregations in Alexandria celebrate the 20th May as Jesus birthday. Incidentally, Jesus' only surviving brother after the razing of the temple in 70 A.D. was active in Alexandria and is said to have founded the original congregation there.

I know in Europe those that truly want to celebrate Jesus' / Isa's birthday do so on the 20th May. It's a growing trend.

The idea to put Jesus birthday on the 25th Dec is generally considered to have been introduced by Emperor Constantine together with the then Bishop of Rome in about 380 to 400 A.D. The strategy here was simply to usurp or syncretise the Saturnalia holiday.

It is also notable that today, most Eastern Christian churches, e.g. the Coptic Orthodox, Macedonian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Anthiochian Orthodox as well as the Greek Orthodox Church in Athens & Egypt celebrate Jesus' birthday on the 7th January. The reason for this is a matter of calendar mathematics between the Gregorian and Julian calendar.

[AllUrban]

Sinter Klaatz (Dutch) became "Santy Clas" in English.

I suppose that "Sinter Klaatz" could have come from something like "St. Claus" (claus proncounced "ouse" like house is a German name)

Other names for this character are pretty interesting...

Pere Noel (French for "Father Christmas")
Pelz Nichel (German for "Nicholas in Fur" refers back to St. Nicholas)

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas etc.

btw, Christmas in malaysia is a pretty big holiday, just as grand and commercial as it is in Canada. We also have a great tradition in Canada: "Boxing Day" sales when retailers slash prices on Christmas inventory! Actually, Boxing Day has become "Boxing Week" and lasts well into January now

[orchipalar]

Err...Mr. M...Merry Christmas to you too...n welcome to hottest community webforum(like chlli api)...

[ginaphan]

In a way, the commercialised festivities of Christmas is for non-Christians. We (my family) celebrate with the Christmas Eve dinner (or Christmas Day lunch). The idea is for the family and close friends to come together. We will attend the Christmas Eve midnight mass - the highlight of which is singing 'Holy Night' to candlelight. (For some of our younger friends, they do meet up at a friends house and party after that - lots of food and wine but it's still a very family crowd).

This year was expecially special on Christmas morning because we witness the baptism and confirmation of family friends (a family of 3).

Sounds European? We're Lutherans!

There are no Santa Clauses on our tree and no Santarina costumes. We strive to reduce the commercialisation of our celebrations. One year, we even had a cap on the value of our gifts. That Christmas was the most meaningful and happiest Christmas for me. We started the year badly, and by the middle of the year, almost all of us were kinda jobless. By Christmas time, we were all employed. That year, too, I became a mother.

Christmas is the time to thank God for all his blessings, big and small. Christmas is the time to realise that God's love is complete.

I know this sounds boring to some people. But you did ask how we celebrate......