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CNN World Report
Summer Is the Time for Rice Festivals in East Asia
Aired July 08, 2001 - 14:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ASIEH NAMDAR, CNN ANCHOR: In East Asia, rice festivals dominate celebrations this time of year.
SHIHAB RATTANSI, CNN ANCHOR: And we have two reports displaying the merry-making and feasting associated with festivities in Malaysia and Japan. We begin in the Sabah state of Malaysia, where each May a thanksgiving festival dedicated to the rice gods is coupled with efforts of national integration. RTM reports.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): To the founding community in Sabah state in Eastern Malaysia, a bountiful harvest means more than just a windfall of income. Dollars and cents aside, the patty planters, predominantly from the Kadazandusun ethnic group, regard such a bountiful yield of crop as a veritable blessing by providence.
Despite the advent of the modern technology in the cultivation and harvesting of patty, the farming community generally attribute the good yield to conducive weather, timely rainfall and the absence of pests and predators.
Each year, the grateful farmers hold a month-long festival in May to celebrate the harvest. This year, the thanksgiving celebration was held in Kuala Lumpur, as well as in Sabah. This is the first time that a harvest festival is held simultaneously in Sabah and peninsula Malaysia. The national function is an extravagance of cultural performances and an exhibition of Kadazandusun handy crops.
The opening ceremony is replete with Kadazandusun rituals, held at a Titi-wangsa (ph) Lake Gardens in Kuala Lumpur and officiated by the minister of national unity of social development, Dr. Siti Zaharah Suleiman, the event captured the fascination of all, including foreign tourists. The annual affair is viewed as a good way to promote national integration, a program designed to mold a united Malaysian nation with its citizens capable of thinking, working and acting as one people.
SITI ZAHARA, MALAYSIAN MINISTER OF NATIONAL UNITY AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT (through translator): They're holding more and more festivals (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We will be able to foster racial unity and nurture a greater understanding of the cultures and customs of other races in the country. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Beauty contests are not necessarily the monopoly of modern society. In this year's harvest festival, scores of Kadazandusun girls paraded on stage to vie for the title of beauty queen and showcase the last word in elegance in their costumes.
That was Radio Television Malaysia for the CNN WORLD REPORT.
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KONSUHIKO IKOZAMO (ph), CHANNEL J CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On a sunny weekend, during a brief hiatus in the rainy season, high- spirited voices echo in the southern Tokyo town. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) shrine festival originally was to pray for a good rice harvest. And although rice patties no longer exist in this area, the festival remains, and people carry portable shrines throughout the streets of their community.
Neighborhood people, men and women alike, in traditional costumes, carry portable shrines. Even with 50 people holding it up, a portable shrine is still quite heavy. Nowadays, women take on their fair share of the work.
No rice paddies, no prayer for a good harvest, but the sweat- soaked revelers still haul the portable shrines around town. What's the motivation? Well, it's likely they envoy the sense of solidarity, togetherness, that nowadays may be the most important reason to have a festival.
This report was prepared by Konsuhiko Ikozamo (ph), Channel J, Tokyo, for the CNN WORLD REPORT.
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