We missed July 4th (Independence Day) weekend in the United States, with its cookouts and fireworks, but early July in Penang has provided us with lots of festivities.
The end of Ramadan, known here as Hari Raya, is a two-day national holiday. This year it fell on a Wednesday and Thursday, so some people took Friday off and turned it into a five-day weekend. Like Thanksgiving in the United States, Hari Raya is a family-oriented holiday. Malaysian Muslims typically go back to their parents’ or grandparents’ home to feast with their relatives and visit longtime family friends.

Plenty of people come to Penang for the holiday, and one of the things they spend a lot of time doing is shopping. All of the stores advertise Hari Raya specials, and malls put up lavish Hari Raya decorations. (One mall that decided to skip the decorations this year because of a renovation project was loudly blasted for it on social media.) Not knowing any local Muslim families, we weren’t invited to anyone’s home for the holiday. But it was fun, as we walked through the normally workaday village near our house, to see people dressed in their best, most colorful clothes. There weren’t any public fireworks displays, but we heard pops and booms going off in all directions late into the night. And little boys gleefully throwing capgun caps against concrete walls seem to be a universal phenomenon.
The end of the long Hari Raya weekend coincided with a pair of street festivals in downtown George Town (Penang’s main city). The first festival celebrated the 215th anniversary of one of the city’s oldest mosques, Masjid Kapitan Keling. It was founded in 1801 by Tamil (southern Indian) soldiers who came to Penang with the British East India Company. The mosque is a beautiful building, all domes and arches and whitewashed walls that give it an airy feeling. We’ve admired it many times as we’ve walked by, but usually it’s open only to worshipers.

The day of the festival, anyone could go in, even without a head scarf, as long as they were modestly dressed (thighs and torso and shoulders covered). The mosque’s members were so earnest and hospitable, rushing over to say “Welcome, my friend, come in. Where are you from?” They seemed pleased to show visitors around the building, pointing out the shallow pool for ritual washing before prayers, the high-tech clock that displays the times of the five daily prayers (which change with the sunrise), and the free religious books and pamphlets for anyone interested.


Outside on the lawn, there were horseback rides for kids. And on the street in front of the mosque, which was closed to traffic, there was a tent with a band and stalls giving out free food. It felt like a typical church festival anywhere—except that the entertainment included snake charmers, and some of the mosque’s members commemorated the anniversary by making a giant outline of the main dome out of green and brown rice noodles. (The city honored them with a plaque for that achievement.)


Near the mosque, many more roads were blocked off for another festival, and it was wonderful to stroll the narrow streets of George Town at dusk without having to dodge cars and buses and whizzing motorbikes. This festival was put on by the city to celebrate George Town’s listing in 2008 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, an event that jumpstarted the city’s historic preservation and tourism industry. The theme for this year’s heritage festival was traditional sports and games. There were demonstrations of martial arts, dancing, and an acrobatic Chinese lion. Different stations were set up on the street where people could play traditional games, such as mancala (in which you move counters around the holes on a wooden board), Chinese chess, marbles, dice games, a version of jacks played with rocks, and “pinball” boards made with rubber bands. There were whole alleys dedicated to badminton. It was fun to see people of all ages and colors getting into the spirit of each other’s childhood games. We got pulled by some enthusiastic young volunteers into “the handkerchief game,” an Indian version of duck-duck-goose in which, instead of tapping players on the head, the leader drops a handkerchief behind one of them to choose who has to chase the leader around the circle.

After all of that running around, we were hot and tired and ready to head home. With so much of downtown George Town closed for the festivals, few buses were running. But thanks to Uber—which works as well here as in DC, but is much cheaper—we were able to zip back to our house in cool comfort. If only there had been fireworks, it would have been a perfect summer evening (But there are at least two more festivals this month with fireworks potential, so we may see them yet!)