From shopping local to donating to worthy causes, here’s a green guide to making Christmas and the New Year meaningful and environmentally friendly.
christmas
A Malaysian Scrooge
By Nick ChooTrailer for A Christmas Carol by Disney Pictures I’VE always enjoyed A Christmas Carol, the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a wealthy but cantankerous old man who looks upon Christmas with disdain and is only challenged to change when visited by ghosts. This classic Dickensian tale so resonates with human nature that it has been translated […]
Same country, different place
By Nick ChooSINGER-songwriter Mia Palencia echoes the sentiments of other artistes from Sabah and Sarawak who recognise the disparities between East Malaysia and the peninsula. The 25-year-old recording artiste, whose first solo album Finding My Way was released in April 2008, writes in her Facebook profile on 11 Sept 2009: “[…As] my awareness and understanding of the […]
The Muharram dilemma
By Marina MahathirThe Sultan Ahmed mosque in Istanbul (© Travis Reitter. Source: wikipedia.org) MY mother used to tell us children that she was born on Awal Muharram, the Muslim New Year. This was a matter of trivial interest to us because we think of her birthday as falling on 12 July. That date happened to fall on […]
Hijrah reflections
By Aloysious MoweFireworks commissioned by the Zabbar Parish Church (public domain / wikipedia.org) NEW YEAR celebrations are generally marked by excess and glitz. The midnight sky over big cities in most countries is lit up with firework displays, and most people seek out crowds and companionship as the chimes of midnight sound. We talk of “seeing in” […]
The fundamentals of Christmas
By Kathy Rowland(© Wong Mei Teng / sxc.hu)THERE were a couple of Christmases, as a teenager, when my family did not put up a Christmas tree. I’d like to claim that we were opting out of the crass commercialism of garish ornaments and plastic trees. The truth, however, stood a little more to the right of such […]
Reinterpreting Christmas
By Sivin KitAdvent is represented by lighting four candles, before a fifth is lit on Christmas day (© Traute Klasser / sxc.hu) CHRISTMAS is celebration. Shopping. Decorations. Parties. Carols. But very few of us are aware that in the Christian calendar there are four Sundays that build up to the climax of Christmas day. These Sundays are […]
‘Tis the season
By Cindy ThamSee also: The fundamentals of Christmas An orthodox Christmas Reinterpreting Christmas Cindy Tham is all for e-cards although Chak of Foldees has a different view. Next article: Interview with Chak, founder of the portal for printed designer greeting cards.
