IPOH, Nov 30 — It has been a tradition for jewellery shop Goldfinch Group to celebrate the birthdays of their employees.

On November 23, it was an extraordinary celebration for a Padang Serai branch employee when the management decided to book a lion dance troupe to celebrate the worker's birthday.

Manager Alvin Lee said normally they would only gather for a meal.

“But for that employee's birthday, I suddenly got an idea why not we bring a lion dance troupe to make the celebration extra special.”

Speaking to Malay Mail via telephone, Lee said he first got his supervisor to gather his staff at Nasi Kandar Subaidah at Taman Sejati, Sungai Petani on the pretext of having a meal.

“In the meantime, I contacted the nasi kandar owner to arrange the performance. Luckily, the owner was very accommodating and agreed without any conditions although I told him we would be having our meals there.”

On that day, the troupe turned up and performed for the staff much to her surprise.

“Instead of letting her pluck the lettuce from the lion head, we put a bunch of rambutan where everyone can eat after the performance.”

Lee said his intention was to inculcate the muhibbah spirit when he thought of doing the performance.

“I wanted to tell all my staff all of us are Malaysians irrespective of our race,” he said, adding that he got the idea from watching a clip on social media where a group of Malay men played the kompang to celebrate their Chinese friend's birthday.

Asked if future birthday celebrations would have such acts, Lee said it will be something different but he does not have any idea yet.

Meanwhile, group director Khoo Chun Meng said Lee had approached him and asked for a RM1,000 budget to celebrate the staff's birthday.

“We have birthday celebrations for all our staff in all our 50 branches and we leave it to the respective branch managers to plan,” he said, adding that he only gives out the money as per the managers request.

Following the lion dance performance, Khoo said employees of other branches are also asking for similar treatment.