Melaka Kite Festival

Kites are big around here. I don’t mean just big in size, although some are huge. I mean kite flying is very popular and the art, competition and sport are serious activities, especially in eastern Malaysia. Here in Melaka we have a kite museum and other Malaysian states have big custom built kite museums.

 
We went to a kite festival in the centre of Melaka on New Year’s day. It was a regional festival with enthusiasts from the surrounding states displaying their kites. As well as the traditional kites or ‘Wau’ there were gigantic tigers, huge birds, gargantuan fish and even big cruising sharks. Then there were the colourful kites with butterfly and song bird designs. Have a look at the pictures.

 
The traditional Malay kites were originally used as bird scarers flown over paddy fields to protect the crop. This eventually progressed into decorative kites flown to celebrate the harvest.  Some designs are said to represent a woman’s body, with some having the outline of a cat. Flower and plant motifs are popular, with kites from Sulawesi in Indonesia being decorated with patterns using the vines and creepers of pepper and betel nut plants, important cash crops on that island. Traditional kites have tails or ‘hummers’ which are four times as long as the body and make a variety of noises from screeching to whistling when they are flown. Some traditional kites were made with wool hummers to give a pleasant melodious sound to enhance a balmy tropical night.

 
The festival was for every one. The acrobatic sport kites and the multi element twenty metre long kites were flown by very accomplished adults. But everyone was encouraged with kids flying smaller simpler kites and families introducing their kids to the sport – dad running like a maniac while the tot looked on bemused. 
It was a great day out. Everyone was enthusiastic and friendly, happy to show us their prized kites. 
 Pictures