Eid ul-Adha, 冬至, Christmas

In a well diversed multi-racial, multi-religion country like Malaysia, there's always a chance that a few different festival and special occasion falls within a same period of time.



December 2007, most notably the week starting from 20 December 2007 to 25 December 2007 marks three very important day for three different group of people.



To a lot of the modern day Malaysians, festive seasons = public holidays = more time to sleep at home = time to do shopping.




Ask your indian friend what is Eid ul-Adha (Hari Raya Haji) and they will reply you :"some Malay festival lah!" ( Not exactly, its Muslim, not Malay!)




Ask your malay friend why is Christmas celebrated and they will say :" Kerana Santa Claus akan memberi hadiah?" (Because Santa Claus will give away gifts?)




However, the most embarassing thing to happen is, when you ask your Chinese friend what is 冬至 (Dong Zhi), their reply will be :" Time to eat Tang Yuan !" (which is true, but WHY?)



Maybe its time we ask ourselves these questions:



1.) What is Hari Raya Haji (Eid-ul-Adha) and why do Muslims celebrate it?

2.) What does Christmas mean ? Why is it also known as Xmas? Who is Santa Claus?

3.) Why celebrate 冬至 (Dong Zhi) and why eat Tang Yuan?



With the power of the internet, its never too difficult to find answers to these questions. (I recommend using Wikipedia as a one stop solution!)


Celebrate with purpose, share the joy!