What is the cost of a Malay style wedding?
A Report from Malaysia

This report is a follow-up to the Malay Style Wedding Party report　which received a huge response. Today’s theme is about how much it actually costs for Malay (Muslim) people to get married.

In Japan, it costs a lot of money to have a wedding party. According to a survey from a Japanese wedding agency, a typical wedding party costs around 3 to 3.5 million yen on average. However, the couple getting married only has to pay about 1 million yen because all of the guests give money as a gift.

Now, how about Malay weddings?
A man who decides to get married first faces the issue of a dowry. There are two types of wedding dowries which are given from the man to his future bride:
The first type is called a mas kahwin. It’s compulsory in Islam for a man to pay a dowry to the woman and its amount is fixed by local state religious departments. For example, it is 80 RM (about US$25) for an unmarried woman and 40 RM (about US$12) for divorcee.

Photo: Provided by Mrs. Safiya who is Japanese and married a Malay man in 2012. She had a wedding ceremony at the mosque in her husband’s home town of Pahan. The amount (22.5 RM in Pahan) is also read out in the wedding vows. The money is beautifully decorated and sent to the bride.

The second type of dowry is called a hantaran khawin which is not compulsory in Islam, but traditional. This dowry is sent for the cost of the wedding party on the bride’s side. The average amount is 10000RM (about US$3050), but the bride’s family tends to set higher amount if their daughter has a higher educational background.
The average man’s monthly salary in Malaysia was 1906RM (about US$580) in 2012, so you can imagine how expensive these dowries are.

（Source：The Malaysian Insider http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/for-young-malay-couples-an-increasingly-high-price-to-getting-wed）

DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS, MALAYSIA, SALARIES & WAGES SURVEY REPORT Malaysia 2012, http://www.statistics.gov.my/portal/download_Labour/files/BPTMS/Salaries_and_Wages_Survey_Report_2012_11092013.pdf

Wedding parties are generally held on both the groom and bride’s side in their home towns, so twice in total and it usually costs at least 20000 RM (about US$6100). Of course, it depends on the area where the party is held, whether it’s held at home or in a wedding hall, and whether food is cooked at home or catering services are used.

In Japan, couples can expect monetary gifts from all guests, so they can pay the greater part of the expenses. However, Malay couples usually get gifts from around 500 to 1000 guests.
Maybe it’s because I am Japanese, but I would prefer to have the money rather than gifts.

Photo: Provided by Mrs. Safiya
Wedding scenes in an area of the country side called kampung. Cows for a feast. 3000RM (about US$915) per head
It makes me feel nostalgic for Japanese communities of the past.

As a final thought, consider this: Malay Muslims make up over 60 % of the country’s population, but over 80 % of the divorced population in Malaysia. This figure shows that Malay Muslims are more likely to get a divorce compared to their Chinese or Indian Malaysian counterparts. Does this high rate of divorce have anything to do with the fact that married couples sometimes start their new life together in debt because of the amount of money they need to get married? It seems like the well-known expression “marriage is not the goal, but the start line” is also true in Malaysia.

Reported by Makiko Wada, Sugawara Institute

Released on EurekAlert! On February 10, 2014
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/uoy-ocb021014.php

Scientists at the University of York today report the development of hemp plants with a dramatically increased content of oleic acid. The new oil profile results in an attractive cooking oil that is similar to olive oil in terms of fatty acid content having a much longer shelf life as well as greater heat tolerance and potentially more industrial applications.

Researchers in the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP) in the Department of Biology at York say that high oleic acid varieties are a major step towards developing hemp as a commercially attractive break crop for cereal farmers. The research is published in Plant Biotechnology Journal.

Using fast-track molecular plant breeding, the scientists selected hemp plants lacking the active form of an enzyme involved in making polyunsaturated fatty acids. These plants made less poly-unsaturated fatty acids and instead accumulated higher levels of the mono-unsaturated oleic acid. The research team used conventional plant breeding techniques to develop the plants into a “High Oleic Hemp” line and higher oleic acid content was demonstrated in a Yorkshire field trial.

Oil from the new line was almost 80 per cent oleic acid, compared with typical values of less than 10 per cent in the standard hemp line. This high mono-unsaturated/low poly-unsaturated fatty acid profile increases the oil’s thermal stability and oil from the new line was shown to have around five times the stability of standard hemp oil. This not only makes the oil more valuable as a cooking oil but also increases its usefulness for high temperature industrial processes.

As oilseed rape faces declining yields and increasing attacks from pest and disease, UK farming needs another break crop to ensure the sustainability of its agriculture and maintain cereal yields. An improved hemp crop, yielding high quality oil would provide an excellent alternative. Hemp is a low-input crop and is also dual-purpose, with the straw being used as a fibre (for bedding, composites and textiles), for biomass and as a source of high value waxes and secondary metabolites.

Professor Ian Graham, from CNAP, said: “The new line represents a major improvement in hemp as an oil crop. Similar developments in soybean and oilseed rape have opened up new markets for these crops, due to the perceived healthiness and increased stability of their oil.”

In 2014 field trials of the new High Oleic Hemp are being rolled out across Europe in order to establish agronomic performance and yield under a range of environmental conditions in advance of launching a commercial crop.

Original Article released:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/uoy-ocb021014.php

Link Cited on: LINK de DIET
http://www.nutritio.net/linkdediet/news/FMPro?-db=NEWS.fp5&-Format=detail.htm&kibanID=43327&-lay=lay&-Find

Winter cold has been subsided as seasons have been changing. In the bright sunshine, spring flowers of light colors make beautiful scenery. A new season also brings us new cultural and enjoyable events. After a new year holidays in January comes Setsubun, ‘Bean-Throwing’ Festival in February followed by Hina Matsuri, Dolls Festival in March.

In Japan, we have a custom to purify our soul, mind, and body and to wish for health at certain occasions during a year. The Seven-Herb Festival on January 7th, the Dolls Festival on March 3rd, the Feast of Flags (The Iris Festival) on May 5th, the Star Festival on July 7th, and the Chrysanthemum Festival on September 9th. Those 5 occasions are called ‘Sekku,” and among those, the Dolls Festival is to wish girls’ health and growth and also called Hina Dolls Festival after its main event of displaying the traditional Hina Dolls. (By the way, the Feast of Flags in May is for boys.)

The original custom of the doll festival was a bit different. People would rub a girl’s body with a paper doll shaped as a human as if to absorb all the bad spirits from her. Then, they would float it down the river to purify. The custom is called ‘Nagashi Bina’ and it is still practiced in some regions. But since the Edo period, the custom of decorating the hina dolls has taken the place of floating a paper doll. Though the shape of the hina doll has drastically changed, the concept stays the same. The hina doll is the girl’s alter ego, so it deserves to be treated as such. Materials used for the doll are very sensitive and the doll usually has kimono made with special fabric, so a great care must be paid when keeping the dolls in boxes. Also, when the dolls complete their duties and it’s time to be disposed, the owner of the doll or her mother must hold a memorial service properly.

In general, when a girl baby is born, parents on the maternal side give hina doll prior to the baby’s very first Dolls Festival. And the same dolls will be decorated and displayed every year until the baby is grown up. Some may take over their mothers’ dolls, but it is normal and basic for each girl baby gets her own doll set. However, such rule doesn’t necessarily apply to recent families because of the limited space within the house and the financial situations. Nowadays, hina dolls have a variety of types and sizes from which we can choose the best one for a girl baby.

Although the custom of Hina Matsuri has been modified accordingly, there is one customary manner that we need to follow. It is when to take out and when to put away the dolls. Hina Dolls are to display on a fine day soon after February 4th, ‘Rishun’ the first day of spring in the lunar calendar and they need to be put right away after March 3rd. It is just a superstitious but is believed that the girl may miss a good timing for getting married in the future if the dolls are not properly taken care of. The reasons behind this manner is that the doll taking bad spirits for the girl should not be displayed too long in public or the girl should be disciplined to keep things tidy and in order as growing up. Also, the Emperor and the Empress of the doll set reflects a wedding ceremony. Japanese phrase, ‘katazuku,’ has dual meanings of putting away and being married off, so there includes a parents’ wish that their daughter will get married accordingly.

I don’t have a daughter but we spent the night of Dolls Festival with Hina arare that my younger son brought home from kindergarten and sakura mochi.

Hina Dolls are usually decorated with peach blossoms, hina arare (sweetened rice-flour cakes), hishi mochi (rhombus-shaped rice pounded cake), and sweet drink made from fermented rice. The four colors of hina arare, pink, green, yellow, and white represent four seasons. Hishi mochi has three layers of pink, white, and green; each of which means talisman, purity, and longevity. Family having girl children usually celebrates Dolls Festival with chirashi sushi, unrolled sushi served in a box and clear soup of clams on the night of March 3rd. Clams symbolize a perfect couple as it requires them a couple of shells to close tightly. Serving a clam soup on Hina matsuri is a hidden prayer that parents wish for their daughter to be blessed with a good match in the future.