{"id":80443,"date":"2026-08-29T09:55:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T01:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=80443"},"modified":"2026-08-29T09:55:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T01:55:01","slug":"reflections-how-national-holidays-in-ancient-china-aligned-with-emperors-birthdays-so-all-could-revel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=80443","title":{"rendered":"Reflections | How national holidays in ancient China aligned with emperors\u2019 birthdays, so all could revel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Malaysia celebrates its Independence Day (\u201cHari Merdeka\u201d in Malay) on August 31. This year, it will mark the 69th anniversary of the Malayan Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Note that it was a \u201cMalayan\u201d, not \u201cMalaysian\u201d, declaration.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Sixty-nine years ago, in 1957, Malaysia did not yet exist; the modern nation of Malaysia came into being only on September 16, 1963, with the merger of the 11 states of <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">the Malay Peninsula<\/span> with British North Borneo (renamed Sabah), <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Sarawak<\/span> and Singapore. Most Malaysians would rather forget that brief union with Singapore, which was forced to leave Malaysia after two acrimonious years and become <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">an independent city state<\/span>.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">For decades, August 31 was observed as the country\u2019s de facto national day, despite periodic grumblings from Sabahans and Sarawakians, who felt that celebrating the 1957 independence of the peninsula\u2019s Malayan states overlooked their own place in Malaysia\u2019s history. It was only in 2010 that September 16 was officially celebrated nationwide as Malaysia Day (\u201cHari Malaysia\u201d).<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Malaysia, therefore, is unique in having not one, but <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">two \u201cnational days\u201d<\/span>: public holidays commemorating its independence and national sovereignty.<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-d3pq8q e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-bjn8wh e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Malaysia\u2019s first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman (second from left, with arm raised) declares his country\u2019s independence from British rule at Stadium Negara in Kuala Lumpur on August 31, 1957. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/08\/27\/18cc8bf6-39bc-40fd-8604-49bdae33d07d_6ab234be.jpg\" title=\"Malaysia\u2019s first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman (second from left, with arm raised) declares his country\u2019s independence from British rule at Stadium Negara in Kuala Lumpur on August 31, 1957. Photo: AFP\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">Malaysia\u2019s first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman (second from left, with arm raised) declares his country\u2019s independence from British rule at Stadium Negara in Kuala Lumpur on August 31, 1957. Photo: AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">In ancient China, the emperor\u2019s birthday was perhaps the closest equivalent to what we would now call a national day. The tradition began in the <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Tang dynasty<\/span> (618-907), when Emperor Xuanzong established the Qianqiu Jie, or \u201cThousand Autumns Festival\u201d.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/chinese-culture\/article\/3365430\/how-national-holidays-ancient-china-aligned-emperors-birthdays-so-all-could-revel?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Malaysia celebrates its Independence Day (\u201cHari Merdeka\u201d in Malay) on August 31. This year, it will mark the 69th anniversary of the Malayan Declaration of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[21128,5434,9377,832,6533,5248,1387,5433,29105],"class_list":["post-80443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-aligned","tag-ancient","tag-birthdays","tag-china","tag-emperors","tag-holidays","tag-national","tag-reflections","tag-revel","wpcat-33-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/80444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}