The holiday season in Malaysia
Malaysian holidays are pretty well spread out throughout the year, with a day for almost every month, except towards the end of the year when there’s a concentration of holidays. In fact, today, the 15th day of Chinese New Year (also called Lunar New Year) marks the end of the festive holiday “season” in Malaysia that began with the Muslim Hari Raya Puasa at the beginning of October 2008, and included Deepavali (Hindu “Festival of Lights”), Christmas, (Western) New Year and Chinese (Lunar) New Year.
By “season”, I don’t mean a long stretch of vacation time uninterrupted by work. Malaysian holidays (either “national” enjoyed by everyone in the country, or “state” enjoyed only by people in a particular state that celebrates that holiday) are usually just one day or at most two. The one-day holidays would be Christmas, (Western) New Year, a Sultan’s (head of State) birthday, etc. But Hari Raya Puasa is a 2-day holiday; so, too, is Chinese New Year. That’s when offices and schools close for a “break”.
These holidays are given by the Government and are usually called “public” holidays, even though there are some that are only for people of specific states (in which case they are called “state” holidays), but generally, all Government given holidays are known as public holidays.
As noted earlier, before I interrupted myself, the longest stretch is towards the latter part of the year, from around October through to January or February the following year. It feels like a long stretch because often, we’re just back at work before it’s time for another public holiday.
Such holidays are often turned into long weekends, altho this is not collectively enjoyed by everyone, but only by those who decide to create the long weekends by taking time off between a holiday and a weekend (but only if they feel their workload is light enough and they have enough vacation days to do so). So, if there’s a holiday on a Tuesday, they might take time off on the Monday in-between and thus have a 4-day break (Saturday – Tuesday) instead of just one day (Tuesday). This can also happen if a holiday falls on a Thursday; it can even happen if a holiday falls on a Wednesday, and people apply for either Monday and Tuesday, to extend the previous weekend, or Thursday and Friday, to go into the coming weekend.
All this may sound confusing to a non-Malaysian, but it’s pretty much second nature to Malaysians. It’s all part of time management.
It gets more interesting if holidays are close enough to create even longer holidays. There’s a recent example. The Chinese New Year holidays this year fell on 26 and 27 January. There was a smaller public holiday on 1 February – Federal Territory Day, enjoyed by people living in various FTs, including Kuala Lumpur, the capital. Most people returned to work on the 28th, but some living in one of the FTs took time off on the 28th, 29th and 30th, and ended up having an 8-day break, enough to go away for an overseas tour or something.
There’s more. When a holiday falls on a Sunday, the next day is a replacement holiday. 1 February was a Sunday, which made 2 February a holiday, too, which meant those who carved out the 8-day break from the two holidays returned to work only on 3 February. Actually, it was a 10-day break, because 24 and 25 January, the two days before Chinese New Year, fell on a weekend.
There’s actually a reason for all these extended holidays at the end of the year. Most 9-to-5 office workers have to clear their vacation days by the end of the year (some are allowed to clear the days by the end of the following first quarter, or the end of January in the new year, which they do because they usually don’t get compensated if they don’t), so the various holidays at that time of year allow them to clear their vacation days, and string together a longer break between public holidays.
Today, 9 February, is also a holiday, for most of the country. Today’s holiday is for Thaipusam, a Hindu religious day that features pilgrimages and the performance of thanksgiving rites for vows fulfilled. However, not many people took time off on the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th for an even longer break. Well, maybe some did.
After today, the next public holiday is on 9 March, to celebrate the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. And after that, it’s 6 weeks to the next public holiday, which is Labour Day on 1 May.
While most people take extended holidays at the end of the year, I used to take mine at a different time. When I was working, there were years when Labour Day and the Buddhist Vesak Day holidays fell close enough (usually within a week of each other) for me to take time off between them and fly off for my annual vacation somewhere. But that was just me.
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