Kongsi Raya, also known as Gongxi Raya, is a

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsChinese New Year Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a New Year, new year on the traditional lunisolar calendar, lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Sinophone, Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the festival is commonly r ...

and

Hari Raya Aidilfitri , nickname = Festival of Breaking the Fast, Lesser Eid, Sweet Eid, Sugar Feast , observedby = Muslims , type = Islamic , longtype = Islamic , significance = Commemoration to mark the end of fasting in Ramadan , date ...

(

Eid ul-Fitr , nickname = Festival of Breaking the Fast, Lesser Eid, Sweet Eid, Sugar Feast , observedby = Muslims , type = Islamic , longtype = Islamic , significance = Commemoration to mark the end of fasting in Ramadan , dat ...

)

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

s. As the timing of these festivals fluctuate due to their reliance on

lunar calendar A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases (synodic months, lunations), in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based only directly on the solar year. The most commonly used calendar, the Gre ...

s (the

Chinese calendar The traditional Chinese calendar (also known as the Agricultural Calendar ��曆; 农历; ''Nónglì''; 'farming calendar' Former Calendar ��曆; 旧历; ''Jiùlì'' Traditional Calendar ��曆; 老历; ''Lǎolì'', is a lunisolar calendar ...

is a lunisolar calendar while the

Islamic calendar The Hijri calendar ( ar, ٱلتَّقْوِيم ٱلْهِجْرِيّ, translit=al-taqwīm al-hijrī), also known in English as the Muslim calendar and Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or ...

is a purely lunar calendar), they occasionally occur close to one another - every 33 years to be exact.

Occurrence

The phenomenon is observed to take place every 33 years. The last occurrence was between 1996 and 1998; the next will be between 2029 and 2031.

Etymology

For the sake of convenience, Malaysian media took to combining "kongsi" (from the traditional Chinese New Year greeting, ''gong xi fa cai'') and "raya", the

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

word for "celebration", which is often used to denote the

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

Eid ul-Fitr festival ("Hari Raya Aidilfitri"). ''

Kongsi Kongsi () is a Hokkien transcription term meaning " company", especially businesses which have been incorporated. However, the word has other meanings under different historical contexts. ''Kongsi'' were most commonly known as Chinese social orga ...

'' was also the Malay word for ''sharing'' - symbolizing a ''shared celebration''. As the

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

festival of

Deepavali Diwali (), Dewali, Divali, or Deepavali (IAST: ''dīpāvalī''), also known as the Festival of Lights, related to Jain Diwali, Bandi Chhor Divas, Tihar, Swanti, Sohrai, and Bandna, is a religious celebration in Indian religions. It is on ...

also occasionally occurs around Eid ul-Fitr, the portmanteau of

DeepaRaya {{Short description, Portmanteau neologism of Deepavali and Hari Raya DeepaRaya is a name for the Deepavali and Hari Raya festivals, which are traditionally celebrated by Hindus and Muslims, respectively, in Malaysia as well as in Singapore. The wor ...

has also come into common usage. Malaysia's national-level Kongsi Raya celebrations are now held in

Johor Johor (; ), also spelled as Johore, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. Johor has land borders with the Malaysian states of Pahang to the north and Malacca and Negeri Sembilan ...

's Danga Bay where they draw up to 300,000 people. A related portmanteau to Kongsi Raya is ''kongsi puasa'', referring to some non-Muslims who also observe the traditional Muslim fast during

Ramadhan , type = islam , longtype = Religious , image = Ramadan montage.jpg , caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. C ...

. (''Puasa'' being the Malay word for fast.)

Controversy

Like DeepaRaya, Kongsi Raya has been criticised by some conservative Muslims for allegedly placing a Muslim festival on par with a non-Muslim one. This includes PAS, a major opposition

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

, which has expressed concern that the practice of celebrating Kongsi Raya might negatively affect Muslims'

aqidah ''Aqidah'' ( (), plural ''ʿaqāʾid'', also rendered ''ʿaqīda'', ''aqeeda'', etc.) is an Islamic term of Arabic origin that literally means " creed". It is also called Islamic creed and Islamic theology. ''Aqidah'' go beyond concise state ...

(faith)."PAS also doesn’t favour Kongsi Raya"
. (June 16, 2006). ''

Malaysia Today ''Malaysia Today'' is a Malaysian news blog founded in August 2004. Founding ''Malaysia Today'' was launched about two weeks before the release of Anwar Ibrahim from prison on 2 September 2004; Anwar was once Deputy Prime Minister, but fell ...

''. Islam is the

official religion A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular, is not necessarily a t ...

of Malaysia.

Notes and references

Other references

"Balik Kampung"
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051101094425/http://allmalaysia.info/msiaknow/malaysiana/balik_kampung.asp , date=2005-11-01 . Retrieved Nov. 1, 2005. Malaysian culture Unofficial observances

Occurrence

Etymology

Controversy

See also

Notes and references

Other references