QUALITATIVE STUDY OF FOOD CHOICE DURING CHRISTIAN FESTIVALS IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

Introduction: Festival food plays an important role as a medium of unity in multicultural country like Malaysia. It is normally served during open house of cultural or religious festivals which attended by people from different background. Some people especially Muslims feel doubtful to eat the food because of religiosity factor. This study tried to gather information on the type of food that is served during Christian festival days. Before that this study tried to get information from the followers of Christian themselves whether each of the Christian festival is categorized as religious festival or cultural festival. Method: This qualitative study used purposive sampling method where 11 participants among Christian followers were interviewed through phone call based on the semi-structured questions specifically created by the researcher. The interview sessions were recorded using an audio recorder and the data data were transcribed verbatim in Malay which then the transcription were translated into English. The transcribed data were analysed using qualitative data analysis software; Atlas.ti version 9 for Windows. A thematic framework by Braun and Clarke (2006) was used to assist the analysis. The data were then identified, analysed and organized according to the key themes. Results: The study revealed that there are at least six Christian festivals celebrated by Christians in Malaysia. Almost all of the festivals are religious festivals or contain religious elements. Even though most of the food that are served during the Christian festivals were informed as halal but some of them were informed as non-halal.  Conclusion: Muslim people are allowed to attend the Christian festivals if the celebration are not mix with ritual activity and they can only choose the halal food. Sharing of halal festival food by people in the community can be a medium of unity. 

KEYWORDS:  Qualitative Study, Christian Celebration Day, Festival Food.