Christmas is just around the corner and everyone has been doing their shopping since the beginning of November! Many have made plans to celebrate the Jolly holiday with their loved ones and one of the many ways to celebrate is enjoying some delicious Christmas desserts like cake!
However, there seems to be an uproar recently after netizens found out that bakeries allegedly can’t really write the words “Merry Christmas” on their cakes. Is that really the case or a simple misunderstanding? Here’s what actually happened:
On Thursday (14th December), Berry’s Cake House posted a notice at one of their outlets to inform that the words “Merry Christmas” or “Xmas” were not allowed to be written on their cakes, even if requested by customers. “You may use our provided ‘Seasons Greetings’ card toppers instead to display on the cakes. The reason is that we possess a Halal Certificate and should adhere to the rules and regulations of the certificate set by JAKIM,” the company wrote.
The memo caused quite a stir among netizens who believed the banning of the words was unreasonable. After the post went viral, the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) quickly released a statement to address the issue. The federal agency posted on their Facebook page to clarify that there are no restrictions for bakeries to write festive greetings on cake orders.
However, it is worth noting that halal-certified food establishments are prohibited from exhibiting or displaying food products with “Merry Christmas” greetings written on them to avoid risking getting their halal certification revoked for non-compliance. While this information was not specified in their recent social media postings, it was mentioned in a statement released by JAKIM back in 2020.
As for what Berry’s Cake House had to say after the whole thing blew up, operations manager Daniel Teoh said that they were just simply following orders. Speaking to FreeMalaysiaToday, he said, “We are not simply doing this (prohibiting Christmas greetings). What would happen if they (JAKIM) suddenly audited us? They would revoke our halal certificate.”
The company has since removed the notice following the backlash and clarification from JAKIM. According to staff at the Subang Jaya outlet, the bakery had actually been doing this for years before the post went viral.
What are your thoughts about this whole situation?
Sources: Facebook (1)(2)(3), FMT (1)(2)
