HOLIDAY season is upon us and we LOVE our holidays in Malaysia. In fact, if one is hard pressed to identify something that is truly “Malaysian culture” while also inclusive, it would have to be our love of public holidays.

I haven’t done the research nor read literature on the subject, but I’m assuming that the more diverse the ethnic and religious make-up of a nation, the higher the chances of it having more public holidays to accommodate the different celebrations.

Technically speaking, all Malaysians “celebrate” the different religious and cultural holidays regardless of what prying power-crazy demagogues tend to insist what one should and should not celebrate. 

Countries like Norway and Japan have some of the lowest number of public holidays and although it’s presumptive of me to assume their population is not diverse, juxtaposed against most Southeast Asian and South Asian countries they wouldn’t stand much of a chance in the diversity sprint.

A simple indicator is also the spread of different languages and dialects one nation has: you can drive from one end of the United States to the other end and people still speak English but travel the same distance here in Southeast Asia and… well, you get my drift. 

My expatriate colleagues at my university grimace with a mix of awe at how our public holidays interrupt with our weekly class schedules during new semester planning (we have to replace classes that fall on public holidays – a standard procedure at private universities). Heck, even our daily lunch menus and choices are way more diverse compared to any Western nation (“Lunch is an event here in Malaysia!” exclaimed one former colleague, from Britain, where a bagel passes as “lunch” (the horror!). 

In my vocation as a performing musician, the eve of public holidays is often the preferred date for a gig (something all of us have been deprived of for almost a year) – because people are in the mood since they can wake up late/stay up late/paint the town red – compared to the public holiday date itself – which is more often than not a recovery day from the eve’s festivities. Unless, it is a long weekend.

And depending on which source you Google, Malaysia has a pretty much permanent seat in the global Top 10 of countries with the most paid public holidays.

In fact, we were in the comfortable second place tie with Azerbaijan and Bulgaria with 19 paid public holiday days – losing out to Iran, which tops the list with 27 paid public holidays, according to CupoNation Australia in 2019.

Calculating those 19 days depends on which state you live in since our public holidays fall into two types: national and state holidays.

If you didn’t know already (or just moved to Malaysia like my exasperated expat colleagues), national holidays are observed by most government and private organisations while state holidays are additional days observed by the individual states iaccording to Section 9(1) of the Holidays Act – probably winner also of the Best Named Act if there was such an award.

If there is one major shortcoming we currently have is that Gawai and Ka’amatan should be declared national public holidays, but not only as state public holidays because both of these are major festivities in East Malaysia and a lot of East Malaysians work and live in West Malaysia.

Now, I’m not interested in getting into the specifics on how to further calculate which state has the most holidays nor try to dig deeper into the Holidays Act or even define what exactly is a “paid public holiday” (check out the aforementioned hyperlinks above yourself).

What has changed in 2020 is how we have to come perceive and experience our public holidays: it’s a major paradigm shift that most of us are still trying to get used to as the usual holiday season has begun (usually defined by the longest period of school holidays since, I’m presuming again, most Malaysians are parents).

While what used to be a joke that public holidays can be hazardous – primarily because the amount of food we feast on (another popular “Malaysian culture”) in our times of repose – now has in fact become a real danger because of Covid-19.

But going on holidays, i.e, local tourism, is also an important economic driver with the downstream chain of employment it creates and probably one of the best methods to contribute to the national economic recovery.

Judging from what I see on social media, many are already hitting the usual localdestinations (typically beaches) but with a constant vigilance to health rules, which can be a killjoy.

It’s a double-edged sword but that’s the paradigm shift we will most probably have to deal with for a longer while as the world hopefully enters a post-Covid-19 era if all goes well. 

In fact, I’m conflicted to wish “Happy Holidays” although we all deserve it for surviving this supposedly Wawasan year.

So, in hindsight, maybe it’s not the number of holidays a nation has that really counts (it’s not a contest and there’s no trophy) but it’s what we do with those off days that counts.

Some use it to focus on other activities that may help earn some extra income (some jobs in the service industry pays three times the usual rate on public holidays) while some might really use it to let their hair down.

Aside from being a right that every working citizen has, holidays are at its core a state of mind – a reclamation of our heritage as a species to whom the concept of work and leisure are just modern social and cultural constructs – to help us recharge to come back stronger to face the adversity that is “life”. – December 25, 2020.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.