Ahmd Emara, President
I was lucky enough to attend two New Year celebrations; one with UWE Malaysian Society and one with UWE Hong Kong Society. Here is what I got up to.
Over the weekend we celebrated the Chinese New Year. It has been absolutely great to experience the festive spirit of the celebrations.
I was lucky enough to celebrate with two of our student societies. On Friday 27 January UWE Malaysian Society celebrated in a Chinese restaurant in town called Dynasty and on Saturday UWE Hong Kong Society celebrated in another Chinese restaurant called Han.
I noticed that whilst both societies have different cultures and traditions in celebrating the New Year, there are some similarities too.
The Malaysian Society started their meal and celebration by mixing all the food together in one big plate. The whole table then stuck their chopsticks in and the one who could go higher was the luckiest.
Malaysia is a multicultural country that has different faiths and backgrounds and a lot of Muslim population too; so they were very keen to have a wide range of Halal food so everyone felt included.
With UWE Hong Kong I enjoyed the celebration for the second day of learning something new about another culture.
So what are the similarities between the Malaysian and Hong Kong celebrations?
Both enjoy food and celebration in a very warm atmosphere full of love and joy. Both have six or seven different dishes served on every table and the main ingredients are fish, meat, chicken, noodles, rice and tofu. Both play some games and give out pretend money to the lucky winners.
With UWE Malaysian Society
With UWE Hong Kong Society