The tourism, arts and culture ministry has agreed to recognise the Fiesta San Pedro festival celebrated by Melaka’s Portuguese settlement as a Malaysian intangible cultural heritage.
Minister Tiong King Sing said Fiesta San Pedro integrates various elements of cultural heritage like fashion, music, dance, food, decoration, language and performing arts.
He said a committee of heritage experts under his ministry met on July 3 to consider an application for Fiesta San Pedro to be recognised as an intangible cultural heritage.
“After going through the supporting documents and justifications, the committee agreed to recommend that the festival be recognised as a heritage under the National Heritage Act 2005,” he said in a written parliamentary reply.
Tiong said the next step will be to gazette the festival under the Act.
He was replying to Khoo Poay Tiong (PH-Kota Melaka) who asked for an update on his application filed in 2022 for the festival to be recognised as a national heritage festival.
Among the common features of Fiesta San Pedro is the traditional Portuguese dance Malhao which is usually performed to the song “Jinkli Nona”.
