page_title: Malaysian Chinese
section_title: Holidays and festivities
hierarchical_section_title: Malaysian Chinese / Culture / Holidays and festivities
caption_attribution_description: English: Lion dance in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
context_page_description: Malaysian Chinese people or Chinese Malaysians is a local ethnic group in Malaysia. The group is defined as Malaysian citizens of Chinese ethnicity. Today, they form the second largest ethnic group after the Malay majority. Most are descendants of Southern Chinese immigrants who arrived in Malaysia between the early 19th century and the mid-20th century.
  The sub-ethnic groups of Malaysian Chinese includes Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew, Hainan, Foochow and Kwongsai. Malaysian Chinese also form the second largest community of Overseas Chinese in the world, after Thai Chinese. Within Malaysia, they represent the third largest group, constituting 23% of the Malaysian population.
  Malaysian Chinese are traditionally dominant in the business sector of the Malaysian economy. Different towns and cities in Malaysia are placed by different Chinese dialects among Chinese speakers; for example Cantonese in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Sandakan, Hokkien in George Town, Klang and Kuching, Hakka in Kota Kinabalu, Teochew in Johor Bahru, Foochow in Sibu, Miri and Sitiawan, and Hainanese in Kuala Terengganu.
context_section_description: With the large presence of ethnic Chinese in the country nationwide, the ethnic main festivity of Chinese New Year have been gazetted as a national public holiday with 11 states and three federal territories in the country celebrate the festive with two days holidays while two remaining states of Kelantan and Terengganu only celebrate a one-day holiday. During the New Year, many Chinese living with their family in the urban areas will celebrate the festive together while some who may have family in rural areas will return for family reunions. A traditional dinner with entire family are the most important aspect on the celebration where there will also be a traditional food tossing culture of yee sang especially among the Cantonese. The elder one will usually give the young a red envelope (ang pow or angpau) with variety of festival sweets are presented in the house for visitors. Most Chinese settlements and Chinatown streets will be decorated early before the New Year with colourful lanterns and lamps that will be shined at night throughout the festive. The performances of dragon and lion dances will be presented throughout every Chinese settlements in the country with firecracker and fireworks shows also featured at night as part of the celebrations.
  Chingay procession are also being held as part of the New Year festivities especially in Johor Bahru and Penang. Several other festivals are celebrated through the seasons in a year including the Dongzhi Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Hungry Ghost Festival, Lantern Festival (Chap Goh Mei), Mid-Autumn Festival, Nine Emperor Gods Festival and Qingming Festival which originated from much of Chinese folk beliefs and traditional agricultural society. Throughout the festivals, especially for major Chinese festivals such as the New Year, Hungry Ghost and Mid-Autumn, nearly every Chinese temples including charity temples in the country will organise cultural and religious activities. The Hungry Ghost Festival is generally not observed by most Dejiao (Zi) group in Malaysia which descended directly from Dejiao association in China, it is only mainly observed by three Zi associations in Kuala Lumpur (Zi Fang Ge), Pulau Ketam (Zi Bang Ge) and Butterworth (Zi Wei Gi) with the three calling the festival as Wanyuan Shenghui than Yulan Shanghui. The Mooncake Festival are popularly celebrated through the Mid-Autumn Festival where there will be the exchange and consume of mooncake as well lantern festival. Traditional Chinese weddings remain popular to some ethnic Chinese Malaysians couple even most have preferred the Western-influenced wearing of white wedding dresses and black jackets.
caption: Lion dance in Malaysia's capital during the Chinese main festivity.
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