Easter in Sarawak and Sabah??

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Hi
I was jut looking up to see if Malaysia observed any public holidays over the Easter break to find that the only recognised holiday is Good Friday which is only observed in Sabah and Sarawak. This surprised me as I had always assumed that the residents of these two States were  mainly of the muslim faith.
Any ideas? Could it be the proximity to the Phillipines?
Cheers 

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From Wikipedia:
Christianity is the largest religion in Sarawak, making up 43% of Sarawak total population. This makes Sarawak the state with highest percentage of Christians in Malaysia. 78% of Sarawakian Christians are non-Malay Bumiputera, ranging from Iban, Bidayuh, Orang Ulu and Melanau. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarawak#Religions

I think a lot of the original inhabitants converted to Christianity at some point. I didn't know the figure was this high until I googled it.
When we visited Kuching some time ago I noticed there was a stronger Christian influence the on the mainland resulting in a good bar scene 

Cheers, Paul

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I think I am right in saying that there are relatively large  (mainly chinese?)catholic communities in parts of Sarawak as well as evangelical  Christian denominations.

In the news recently there were small-scale anti-catholic demonstrations after the Catholic church used the term 'Allah' for 'God' in its missal used at mass. There ws at least one catholic church in Sarawak which had its windows smashed bricks thrown at them.

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hi,

Sarawak was ruled by Rajah Brooke and his descendants, and they were Christians. The Ibans were traditionally animist.

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I think you'll find a slightly higher percentage of the population in Sarawak are Christians rather than Muslim.
This makes for an even handed approach to life there.