Singapore Holidays vs. Malaysia Holidays

Thanks to the AFF Suzuki Cup, where Malaysia won over Indonesia, all my colleagues (ex-colleagues...)in Malaysia enjoyed another day of holiday...... luckily in Singapore, we also work for half day in New Year's eve...haha...

Initially I planned to go to bank to perform some transaction, after called the customer service only knew that the banks in Singapore also enjoyed the half day leave...surprisingly the SGX (Singapore Stock Exchange) also closed for half day…...This would not happen in Malaysia. In Malaysia, it is either a whole day close or full day open for the financial services.

After sharing this to my colleagues in Singapore, they said it is very normal in Singapore as the numbers of Public Holidays in Singapore are very limited. Thus, the public and private sectors usually shall let their employees had a half day leave on the eve of the major Public Holidays, i.e. Christmas, Chinese New Year, etc…

I have worked in Singapore for about a year…...yes, it is true that Singapore’s Public Holidays is relatively lesser compared to Malaysia’s. And in Malaysia, it is more often or a norm that our government leaders declare holidays on some “special events”. And they are more states’ rulers (and their spouse) birthday (or death) that the relevant states shall declare holiday…...But in Singapore, this is hardly the case. In 2010, although the respected ex-deputy Prime Minister and ex-first lady for the country passed away, still working as usual…

I have did a comparison as below, it shows that Malaysia have about 7 days of extra Public Holidays (not including the abnormal ones described above…). I have a look on the calendar where shows public holidays from various Asian countries…Malaysia really tops the list…hehe…