The Celebration for All (Afiq Punyerz)

The Celebration for All

            Have you ever seen one of those sci-fi Hollywood movies such as the Book of Eli or Tomorrowland? These 2 movies represent 2 independent futures for our civilization. A dystopia which no one wants as it is literally hell on earth and a utopia, where everyone knows each other and is friends with each other. For us to achieve the latter and not the former is to remove the barriers that transcends both culture and religion. This is in response to one a blog I’ve read online in which the writer started a rather peculiar idea whereby everyone in a country regardless of religion and culture all celebrated only one festival. Me being an enthusiast of peculiarities was fascinated by the idea and this blog is intended to make it perpetual.

Celebrations Redefined

            Malaysia, my home country, a multiracial, multi-religious country where every race and religion has always celebrated each of its own festival independently. I have always preferred it like that during my school days as it translates to more public holidays but the more I age, the more I see how that gauge is actually inhibits social evolution in which this country desperately needs. Malaysia has always been plagued by racial stirs which will sometimes end up in bloodshed. This is due to a lack of compassion and understanding between each races and religion despite having gained independence for more than 60 years.

            Continuing the original writer’s idea, at the end of every year, there will be one-month long holiday in which every race and religion will be able to celebrate their own festivals albeit this time together. This will be a sort of paradigm shift within the country as there will be no more Eid after Ramadhan, no more Diwali after light have triumphed over darkness and no more Chinese New Year when springtime arrives. It will be combined into a one-month long holiday and it will push cultural boundaries to its limits. I am sure that it will be able to make a great impact towards the Malaysian society.

The Challenge

            I do believe that this will be the next step in making any multiracial and multi-religious country more unified but not everyone will accept change with open arms especially the ones who truly respects cultures, traditions and religion. The pious believers from each religion will certainly have their own considerations when it comes to changing the time of such significant celebration in each of their beliefs and the upholders of traditions and customs will certainly don’t like if their favored celebrations will have a change in time just due to a more unified country as it is human nature to be biased towards one’s own kind and faith.

            To implement such a drastic social change and therefore, the social structure within a country, the government needs to take a more active role to break this stigma. They need to remind the citizens that this is for the future and for the greater good in order to break the invisible barriers that have always confined each culture and religion from truly living in symbiosis with each other. If you delve in the past, you will remain in the past as old ways won’t open new doors.

            All in all, to further extend the idea, we need to globalize it. Make the idea seem more realistic rather than it being stuck as a concept that everyone will simply ignore and forget. Implement it in the US where they have always been open-minded and promote liberalization. Implement it in the UK where its Commonwealth countries will make them as an example and follow suit. If it becomes a success, our civilization will certainly become a utopia and will be each other’s Tomorrowland.

- Afiq