This celebration is to showcase the richness of the living heritage in Penang, in line with Penang status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

There will be treasure hunt and Chinese New Year cooking demonstrations and lots of wonderful and interesting events during the night.

Seven thematic little “towns”, highlighting different cultural aspects related to Hokkien, Canton, Teochew, Hainan, Hakka, Wushu and Malaysian cultures will also be featured.

Download full itinerary.

The folk tale has it that the Hokkiens escaped mistreatment by ruthless army in ancient China by seeking refuge in a sugarcane plantation. They emerged unharmed on the 8th day of Chinese New Year. The birthday of the Jade Emperor. Hence the New Year of Hokkiens.

Hokkien New Year is celebrated widely in Penang. The Hokkien community in Chew Jetty is celebrating this year’s Thni Kong Seh in a grand scale. Over 30 long tables of food and fruits, big bottles of cognac and trays, baskets, and sugarcane stalks.

As the Year of the Rabbit is about to begin, it is once again the season for several thousands of chinese to return home to Penang to reunite with family and friends in celebration of the coming of a new year.

The Chinese New Year Celebration is no longer a celebration for only the Chinese Community where family members reunite and spread joy and love. In fact, it is a celebration for all Malaysians. It is during times like this, we take the opportunity to rekindle our friendship with friends and neighbours regardless of race and creed. This kind of closeness which we share during Hari Raya, Deepavali and even Christmas, creates a kind of community togetherness necessary in good and in bad times.

Our multi-ethnic community is a reason for us to rejoice and proudly usher in the New Year with renewed hope for a great year ahead. Among many of our key focus to make year 2011 even better then last year would be to continously highlight the beauty of the cultures in Penang. More cultural performances such as the lion dance and chingay performance would take centre stage in the list of events in Penang this year.

So, do join in with this Chinese New Year celebration to experience our multi-ethnic culture, and to rejoice and proudly usher in the New Year with much joy, excitement and renewed hope for a great year ahead.

Voted as no. 4 “Must visit places in Penang” by VisitPenang website readers, this 119 years old Temple of Supreme Bliss is the focal point of Chinese New Year fesival for the Chinese community in Penang.

During the Chinese New Year celebration, thousands of devotees turned up for the annual lighting ceremony at Kek Lok Si Temple in Air Itam.
Starting from Chinese New Year, Kek Lok Si Temple will be light up every night at 7pm until midnight to symbolize peace, luck and prosperity.

Approximately 230,000 light bulbs and 10,000 lanterns light up the temple every night for 33 days in conjunction with Chinese New Year. Making this 120 year old temple one of Asia’s most beautiful temple.

The Kek Lok Si Temple (Penang Hokkien for “Temple of Supreme Bliss”) is a Buddhist temple situated in Air Itam in Penang and is one of the best known temples on the island.

The temple is a focal point of festivals of the Chinese community in Penang. The Chinese New Year celebrations are particularly impressive: for 33 days following Chinese New Year, the temple remains open until late at night whilst thousands of lights turn the scenery into a sea of light.

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Let's brush it.

Caligraphy master

A demonstration of Chinese calligraphy, spectators can even go up and have the master guide them in writing these ancient characters which they can keep as souvenirs.

Traditional Chinese wedding setup.

Red apparel to bring luck.

Lover's lamp and other wedding accessories.

A display of Chinese traditional marriage utensils and accessories as well as the setup.

Here's looking at ya kid.

Tong tong qiang.

Dragonball anyone?

Lion dance, and Dragon dance, a favourite among the young and old during this festive season which has deeper meanings than just a display of skill and finesse.

You will grow up to be strong one day my son.

三狮行必有我师焉

Dough puppets anyone?

Look! Look! I made an Ox!

The dolls of yester-year were made of dough with limited flexibility, however the designs are anything short of detail and intricacies that still manage to attract people even in this day and age.

Fear me! I'm green!

Guan Yu's shall protect all!

Can you spot your Zodiac?

Enter the gate of the Ox!

I wonder what happens if I put this in this hole here...

A traditional grinder made of stone for the public to try out, and experience.

Grave miniatures! What will they think of next?

Khoo Kongsi is now knowned as Kung Fu City!

Crowds gather round to witness Kung Fu performances on stage at Khoo Kongsi estate.

Red decorates the streets.

Chinese tea ceremony?

I’m sure there were more interesting things happening at night, however due to time constraints I had to leave at 7pm, it was quite an experience, though the crowd is no joking matter, and you thought traffic jams were bad!

The annual lighting up ceremony of one of Asia most beautiful temple will be held at 7pm on 21st Jan 2009. The 119 years old temple will be light up for the next 33 days.

This year 2009′s Chinese New Year falls on 26th of Jan 2009. It is a public holiday in Malaysia.

The Penang State Government is collaborating with the Penang Chinese Clan Council and the Clan Associations Youth Committee in organizing the Chinese New Year Cultural and Heritage Celebration 2009. The event will showcase the richness of the living heritage in Malaysia in line with our status as a Unesco World Heritage City.

The event, to be held on 1st February 2009 from 12noon till 12midnight is spread out along Armenian Street, Cannon Street, Ah Quee Street, Acheen Street, Soo Hong Lane and Chulia Street.

To make the coming Chinese New Year a grand and joyful one, the State Government is organizing a Chinese New Year Open House at Campbell Street on 29th January 2009 from 6.30pm to 10.30pm in the company of several cultural shows, such as lion dance and chingay performance.

More of these cultural performances would not just be educational and interesting for our visitors from near and far. It would provide a platform for the performing arts to progress further. Furthermore, it would also amaze our visitors with how well we preserve our individual cultures and at the same time we continue to progress as Malaysians!

Together with this new year,  Penangite.net will be relaunching with a new look, new content and more updates after a long cold season. However a new season does not always promise good things as there was a major hiccup yesterday whereby all the content I just posted up mysteriously disappeared and WordPress reverted back to it’s default install state.  Seeking the help of my webhost Exabytes was rather futile as well, as all they could identify was a database error, which logically would not cause a total roll back of the database’s content.

With that followed a whole slew of spam comments! Are the two related? Was Penangite.net hacked? I’m guessing a big MAYBE, but as usual, not much help to be had from Exabytes, but then again who would admit to having their servers’ security being compromised, that’s just blatant bad publicity, I guess the truth is IN THERE, what do you think?

Signing off for now, Penangite.net wishes the Chinese community of the country and all over the world a Happy Chinese New Year, and for the other communities happy holidays!!