Hari Raya Version of Santa Claus

Throwback to the Hari Raya celebration in July!! As a Malaysian, I grew up experiencing all kinds of festivals celebrated by different races in Malaysia. However it was my first time celebrating Hari Raya (a Muslim festival) with non-friends. (Don’t we normally celebrate festivals with our friends or at least those whom we know only?)  The hotel that I had my intern with has a lot of loyal/frequent Muslim customers as well as government officials and agencies.  Therefore the hotel has decided to offer a simple expression of gratitude for their support by sending them gifts and greeting cards. This was also to strengthen the relationship between the customer and the hotel. That’s when I started to feel like I was a Santa Claus. Well, a Hari Raya version of Santa Claus (instead of the one we see during Christmas).

A week before Hari Raya, my colleague and I sorted out a list of frequent Malay customers, both local and Bruneians. After that, we started to prepare the Raya gifts (hampers and cheese cakes) and greeting cards. When everything was done preparing, my colleague and I went out to deliver the gifts and greeting cards. For non-Mirians and Bruneians, we only delivered hampers and greeting cards.

The gifts prepared for our loyal Muslim customers.

As far as I know, Santa Claus delivers Christmas presents with the help of flying reindeer. So I’m not sure whether he has ever encountered the problem that I faced. Delivering greeting cards to our customers who are not in Miri required postage but I totally had no idea about the postage rate. (I believe I am not the only one who doesn't know about the postage rate as we rely more on e-mails nowadays, which is not good). However with the help of my colleague, I managed to fulfill the task.

The domestic postage rate - RM0.80.

Facts proved that the younger generation like me is relying too much on the technological but still there are some things that are required to be sent by post/mail. Thus I call this a lesson learned. We as PR professionals, it is very important for us to have flexibility in communication.

Chang Song Enn

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