Gawai Dayak celebration-BALIK KAMPUNG CROWD.

Heading home for Dayak Festival or Hari Gawai  @ Sibu express boat jetty.
Riverine transport services here have gone into overdrive to cope with the  heading home rush for Dayak Festival.

It has become a tradition of sorts for them to head home to celebrate the grand occasion with their families only at the last minute.

For folk heading home for the celebration in the upper reaches of the Rajang River, riverine transport remains the sole option to reach their destinations.

The scene at the express-boat wharf is a colourful one at the end of May as Gawai Dayak revellers crowd the place to catch boats home to Kapit and Song .
Sadly, this scenario will be another chapter in the history of Sibu when the road is completed as people will be able to travel by road, which is faster and easier.

With barely days to Gawai Dayak, chicken vendors are doing good business.Their round-the-clock business  will wrap up on May 31 when the Dayak community would have returned to their longhouses.

For a start, what is "Gawai Dayak" all about? In a simple word, it is a festival marking the end of a harvest season.

As with other festivals, "Gawai" has its own special characteristics and significances especially for the Dayak community of Sarawak.

Gawai marks the beginning of the New Year with the ending of the harvesting season and the upcoming activities connected with preparation for the new harvest season.

The festival is an occasion to rest after the strenuous work carried out over the past year and consists of both religious and social elements.

It is also an ideal occasion for the various Dayak races in Sarawak to display their rich heritage of traditions and customs and offers an excellent opportunity for people of other races to learn more of the customs and traditions of Dayaks of Sarawak.

Gawai is an occasion for the community to give its thanks to God for providing them with their daily needs over the past year and to pray for future blessings and religious guidance for the year ahead.

As a festival which is participated in by all sectors of the community, Gawai plays a role in strengthening the inter-communal relations of the people of Sarawak.

Various differences in the way Gawai Dayak is celebrated can be observed among the different Dayak races while difference can also be observed from one area to another. In the uran areas, the method by which Gawai Dayak is observed is different from the method in the interior regions where there is greater adherence to traditional forms of celebrating Gawai Dayak.

In both cases, the basic idea behind the Gawai festival is maintained - that of merry making and thanksgiving to God. 

I wish ALL by Dayak/Iban friends...."HAPPY DAYAK FESTIVAL" (Hari Gawai/Sarawak).

Photo by Awang using P&S (Lumix LX3).

Traditional Dress.

To-day I have decided to post a photo that I took on one of  the celebration in Kuching.   I took this while at a padang merdeka with some friends.  I shot with Olympus E-620 and happened to have the camera out at the right moment as I passed this people wearing Sarawak native traditional dress.

Beautiful traditional dress.........

Beautiful maiden with colourful traditional dress.

Melanau of Sarawak with their traditional dress.

Student wearing traditional dress during the performance in Kuching.

Balik Kampung Rush in Sibu.

Selamat Hari Gawai Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai to all Malaysians who will be celebrating the Gawai on 01 june 2010.

 

 

The mad rush............

Congested at Sibu express boat jetty...........

The Gawai Dayak rush has begin in Sibu Express Boat Jetty  last Sunday,as members of the Dayak community return home to celebrate the festival in their respective longhouses.

Long Weekend....

I’m sure many people are looking forward for a long weekend which will start to-day (Friday) especially for those in Sarawak . Many are taking the opportunity to travel around be it locally or go somewhere outside Malaysia.

Vesak Day Year 2010 falls on Friday, 28 May 2010.

Vesak day is celebrated by Buddhist around the world, and in different manners all over the world. Though some countries occasionally use different date for this festival, most would fall on this same day.

Gawai Day or Gawai Dayak is a festival celebrated in Sarawak on 1 June every year. It is both a religious and social occasion. The word Gawai means a ritual or festival whereas Dayak is a collective name for the native ethnic groups of Sarawak: the Iban, also known as Sea Dayak and the Bidayuh people, also known as Land Dayak. Thus, Gawai Dayak literally means "Dayak Festival". Dayak would visit their friends and relatives on this day.

Happy Gawai Day & Wesak Day to all Malaysian or popular known as 1Malaysia.........