MALAYSIA: People from all ethnic backgrounds and nationalities celebrate a Chinese style Mid-Autumn Festival in Kuala Lumpur

Record ID: 863030

  • Title: MALAYSIA: People from all ethnic backgrounds and nationalities celebrate a Chinese style Mid-Autumn Festival in Kuala Lumpur
  • Date: 12th September 2011
  • Summary: TOURISTS HOLDING LANTERNS MAN HOLDING LANTERN (SOUNDBITE) (English) GERMAN TOURIST, 26, JAN STOLZEWSKIA SAYING: "This is far from what I've experienced before and I'm a bit puzzled now because I've not seen something like that before."
  • Embargoed: 27th September 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Malaysia, Malaysia
  • City:
  • Country: Malaysia
  • Topics: Entertainment,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVABOGCFZARP49NDT6G8CTIIXGAA
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  • Story Text: Thousands of people from all walks of life on Saturday (September 10) celebrated the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival in Malaysia.
    The festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of lunar calendar and is one of the most important Chinese festivals for family reunions.
    This year, ethnic Chinese around the world will celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival on September 12 but in Malaysia, the festivities were brought forward to the weekend.
    Mid-Autumn festival is commemorated by by praying to the moon goddess Chang-e, eating moon cakes and lighting lanterns and the capital, Kuala Lumpur, was filled with the festive atmosphere on Saturday.
    Booths set up with traditional lanterns containing riddles drew a mainly Chinese crowd. But organizers said they hoped to introduce the traditional festival to the non-Chinese population and boost mutual understanding between the cultures of different ethnic backgrounds and nations.
    "I hope people from other races will acknowledge this festival. And we will tell them this is how we celebrate the day by introducing the fine traditions of Chinese culture to them," said festival organiser, Liew Kon Seng.
    One of the highlights of the event was a lantern making competition that required participants to produce a lantern that shows the country's culture using Batik, a fabric with drawings of flowers and animals widely found in Indonesia and Malaysia.
    Some were shaped like a Malay-style kite and horse, others portrayed the iconic Petronas Twin Towers and Kuala Lumpur Tower. Some kites depicted the nation's floral emblem, the hibiscus.
    "I think these lanterns represent the culture of three major ethnic groups in Malaysia. It shows some Malaysian style buildings and traditional foods, it is very festive… very festive," said a Malaysian ethnic Chinese visitor to the festival, Ang Sim Kwee.
    At dusk fell, visitors lit colourful lanterns.
    "This is far from what I've experienced before and I'm a bit puzzled now because I've not seen something like that before," said Jan Stolzewskia, a tourist from Germany.
    The crowd then went on a lantern parade, led by the country's Tourism Minister Ng Yenyen.
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