Christmas in Malaysia

by Becky

Merry Christmas from Malaysia!  Thanks for any comments you left on our blog last week...the kids love to see comments on their articles.  I got a special request to write a post on what Christmas is like in Malaysia, so here it is!

As you may know, Malaysia is a majority Muslim country, with about 60% of the population practicing Islam.  The remaining population is roughly 20% Buddhist, 10% Christian, 10% Hindu.  A small percentage of people practice traditional Chinese religions such as Confucionism, Taoism, etc.  The country itself is an officially secular state with freedom of religion granted by the constitution, but Islam plays a special role as there are some areas of the law that apply only to the Muslim population, and there is a "National Cultural Policy" that states Islam must play a part in defining what things are "culturally Malaysian". 

When we first touched down at the airport it seemed to me that 90% of the women there were wearing the hijab and had on clothes that covered wrists and ankles.  So I was a little worried that the clothes we brought were going to be too immodest and we would have to buy all new clothes.  However, as we have explored around town, in our neighborhood, at malls, and at tourist attractions, I changed my mind.  It's true that about 60% of women are wearing the hijab, but the remaining women are dressed in more Western style, with shorts and short sleeves being quite common.  When we visit a mosque we will have to put on full covering, but otherwise our regular clothes are OK.

If you look closely, you will see one woman in shorts and in the background, plus several women in hijab.

The grocery store near our house seems to cater to foreigners, and it has a lot of imported food.  The kids were very relieved that we could buy spaghetti and bottled sauce just like we can in America! There are also a lot of imported Korean groceries, I guess because there are a lot of Koreans around here.  At the grocery store there is a special "non-Halal" section where you will find alcohol and food that contains pork.  I've also noticed that restaurants at the mall will often say "non-Halal" if they serve food with pork in it.  Alcohol is not commonly found at any of the restaurants, although we've seen one or two that serve beer.

We've been taking Grab around town for most of our transportation.  It's basically the South East Asian equivalent of Uber.  So my main interactions with Malaysian people so far have been chatting it up with our Grab drivers!  From several drivers we learned that Christmas is a national holiday, and people who have to work on Christmas have to get paid double time.  Most Malaysians also seem to take Christmas Eve off as a holiday.  When our Grab drivers heard that Holly would be working on Christmas Eve they were really surprised.  In the end, he ended up working only a half day on Christmas Eve, then we all went to the mall to eat dinner.  The mall was hopping, and there were a bunch of Christmas themed decorations there.

We've actually been to several malls since getting here and they all had Christmas themed decorations.  At one there was even a Santa who gave the kids some lolly pops.  Child 2 is going to write a separate post about Malls in Malaysia....wait for it!

Christmas trees at the mall

On Christmas day we stayed home most of the day.  We went swimming at our neighborhood pool and there we saw some other people from the neighborhood having a barbecue together.  They were a group of both Muslim and non-Muslim friends (I say this based on how they were dressed).

So, from what I have observed in our one week here, which is to say this is just a first impression, religions and cultures mix quite freely.  Christmas is recognized as an official holiday, and Christmas commercial culture is alive and well!