Reflections | How national holidays in ancient China aligned with emperors’ birthdays, so all could revel
Malaysia celebrates its Independence Day (“Hari Merdeka” in Malay) on August 31. This year, it will mark the 69th anniversary of the Malayan Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom.
Note that it was a “Malayan”, not “Malaysian”, declaration.
Sixty-nine years ago, in 1957, Malaysia did not yet exist; the modern nation of Malaysia came into being only on September 16, 1963, with the merger of the 11 states of the Malay Peninsula with British North Borneo (renamed Sabah), Sarawak and Singapore. Most Malaysians would rather forget that brief union with Singapore, which was forced to leave Malaysia after two acrimonious years and become an independent city state.
For decades, August 31 was observed as the country’s de facto national day, despite periodic grumblings from Sabahans and Sarawakians, who felt that celebrating the 1957 independence of the peninsula’s Malayan states overlooked their own place in Malaysia’s history. It was only in 2010 that September 16 was officially celebrated nationwide as Malaysia Day (“Hari Malaysia”).
Malaysia, therefore, is unique in having not one, but two “national days”: public holidays commemorating its independence and national sovereignty.
In ancient China, the emperor’s birthday was perhaps the closest equivalent to what we would now call a national day. The tradition began in the Tang dynasty (618-907), when Emperor Xuanzong established the Qianqiu Jie, or “Thousand Autumns Festival”.