Hilltop Private School celebrates Malaysia Day with a cross-cultural experience for its students
HILLTOP Private School joined in the nation's Malaysia Day celebration with a special event last Sunday.
Parents and students thronged the school grounds for a cross-cultural experience in sections known as the Malay Village, Little India, China Town and the Japanese Corner.
As the names suggest, the various sections were decorated in their cultural colours and featured interesting displays and interactive activities for exciting hands-on experiences as well as delicious food tasting.
The light drizzle did not dampen the enthusiasm of the teachers, parents and students as the event started off with the raising of the Jalur Gemilang and singing of the national anthem. After that, everyone joined in a rousing rendition of Satu Malaysia.
Many families were dressed in colour-coordinated national costumes and some even made the effort to dress a few members of their family in the national costumes of other Malaysian ethnic groups.
"We want to encourage the children to appreciate Malaysia's multi-cultural society and increase their awareness of our rich heritage," said headmistress, Jennifer Ho.
It was a delight to see the children dressed in their national costumes, with the expatriate children clad in smart kurta, cute kimono and elegant hanbok.
Little Nicole Tan wore an eye-catching Indian costume complete with accessories while Nicholas, her younger brother, was dressed in a yellow baju melayu with a dark kain songket samping.
Everyone had to pass an interesting and informative poster display of traditional Malay costumes at the entrance to the Malay Village and the novel way to gain entry into the village was for parents to recite a pantun or Malay poem and be rewarded with a stalk of bunga telur.
Traditional games like gasing (spinning top), chatek (shuttle kicking), batu seremban (five stones) and congkak were displayed and some games were demonstrated to the delight of many children who were experiencing them for the very first time.
While the children were having fun, parents enjoyed a taste of traditional kuih bahulu among other cookies, ketupat with kuah kacang and learned the art of weaving a ketupat case.
In the Indian Village, the children were thrilled to have their hands decorated with henna designs while many mothers had the opportunity to learn the art of tying a traditional saree from the experts.
It was fascinating to see how a length of four to nine meters of fabric was skillfully wound around the body to create an elegant costume.
Meanwhile, fans of Indian food like thosai and capati watched how these delicacies were prepared and they did not hesitate to sample the freshly cooked tasty treats.
China Town also drew a crowd of enthusiastic youngsters, keen to learn the art of making lanterns from red-packet paper and to try their hand at Chinese calligraphy.
They were captivated by the demo in the art of preparing and enjoying Chinese tea as well as cooking tang yuen or glutinous rice dumplings.
Parents and children also sampled these chewy rice dumplings served in syrup. The dumplings are traditionally eaten at the Winter Solstice festival.
"Japanese students who graduated from Hilltop and joined the Japanese School of Johor, often impress friends with their good command of the English language," said Ho.
She said that the two schools have an exchange programme where Japanese secondary students come to Hilltop for vocational training.
Some teachers of the Japanese school set up a Japanese Corner at the event to demonstrate the art of origami or paper folding while Mr Maeda, a Japanese martial art exponent, attracted much attention with his graceful movements, wielding a wooden staff in his Aikido demonstration.
The morning's event continued with sporting participation from parents and students in fun competitions for dressing in "Truly Malaysian" outfits, a singing contest as well as in showing off their skills in teh tarik and roti canai making.
Following the demo by caterer Rosli Yem of MRCC Catering, participants -- many of them first-timers -- tried "pulling tea" for the teh tarik competition and flipping dough for the roti canai making contest.
Wong Siak Leong, father of Priscilla Wong, 5, emerged the best "tea-puller" while Yeoh Weei Nian, father of Daniel Yeoh, 3, proved to be the best roti canai maker.
Spurred on by the fun, Maria Abdullah, a grandmother who came from Segamat to support 4-year old Wan Fakhira Damia Irrisya Wan Md Husni at this event, volunteered to give a demo on how to flip dough to make roti canai.
The family of Nia Yasmin Chairul Izwan, 4, who were dressed in a range of dusky pink colours but sang a song entitled Baju Hijau, turned out to be the best family singers.
The school's Malaysia Day event closed in song with the smooth vocals of volunteer music teacher, Teresita Rafols, backed by a chorus of children singing, Cindai a song made popular by Datuk Siti Nurhaliza.
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