Nation: Hari Gawai Malaysia 2013 | Malaysia Gawai Day 2013

This 1st June 2013, our fellow Dayaks will celebrate Hari Gawai Festival. I think it is important for me to wish Happy Hari Gawai 2013 to my fellow friends hail from Sarawak. It was year 2008 when I started to have the Iban friend. Since then I have plenty of multi-race friends from Sarawak and I believe all of them are currently in the hometown getting prepared to celebrate the festive.

The traditions celebrated during Gawai Dayak are ancient, but the holiday is not. The first Gawai Dayak festival took place in 1965 after several years of renewed cultural pride within the oppressed Dayak community. When first asked to create a public holiday in celebration of the Dayak people in Sarawak, the colonial government refused; they were afraid that other minority groups would make similar demands. Instead, the government declared June 1 as “Sarawak Day”. Eventually, once Sarawak was awarded independence, the holiday was officially changed to Gawai Dayak.

Source: Yenhing's Blog