Hari Gawai

1:21 AM

This year, I managed to snab a chance to celebrate Hari Gawai in Sarawak! Not bad eh? My first year here and I'm already visiting kampungs around! :D This is actually Joshua's uncle's kampung in Serian, and they were super hospitable, preparing food for us and lending us the comfort of their homes for us to rest. The significance of Hari Gawai is actually to celebrate their harvest from their plantations. In this modern day, not many of these kampungs have plantations anymore. But they still celebrate Hari Gawai every year as a symbolic tradition of their culture.

So many cute little kids!! :D People of all ages join in the fun, nobody's really left out, no matter what ethnic or religion you are, everybody's united during Hari Gawai.

Cool uncle with shades. That's the thing about Sarawakians, they live in such a close-knit community where everybody literally knows everyone else. This is not the first kampung I've been, but it's the first one I'm posting about. XD

They're actually parading around the kampung on trucks and it was a good experience to see this different culture.

This red and black traditional costume belongs to the Bidayuh tribe, most of them are Christians here but there are some Muslims too. You know what's really cool about the Muslims here? They actually offered us beers at their homes but they don't drink them. Simply because it is in their culture to do so. =)