Chingay Reflection 2016

    Chingay 2016 is themed "Lights of Legacy, Brighter Singapore". It marks the first year of Singapore's next 50 years towards SG100. I was excited at the thought of  being able to be one of the audience present to watch as not everybody has a chance to watch it live. Before actually attending Chingay Saturday, we were showed some video to understand it better. As I have never been to Chingay, I was really looking forward to that day. And I find that Chingay 2016 is a very meaningful programme which allows people from different countries and races to perform together as one.

    This allowed people rehearsing to be friends with other performers from other countries and strengthen the bond between Singaporeans through rehearsing. As firecrackers were banned due to its loud noise, injuries and deaths caused by it,Mr Lee Kuan Yew suggested having a Chingay Parade to bring up the dampened mood of Singaporeans. Thus the first Chingay started on 4 February 1973 with the PA teaming up with the Singapore National Pugilistic Federation for a grand show in the year of the ox. The first Chingay parade was so well received that it was made an annual festival. It was not until 1977 that Chingay became a multi-cultural one, where Malays and Indians started joining in the performances. From a local event to an international one, as Singapore is a multiracial country, everyone has to take part in the event regardless of race. The venue for Chingay varied from Jalan Besar to Orchard road to City hall and more. And this year it was held in the F1 pit building! I was able to witness the different types of performances by different cultures and they were really an eye opener. However, behind all these brilliant performance that they showed to us, they must have put in a lot of effort and time to practice for it. For example, just for RV60, we already have to come back to school during the holidays and stay back after school almost everyday to rehearse. Not saying Chingay which is an extremely large scale performance, they definitely spent even more time on it. I really admired that they were able to sacrifice their time for all these as not everybody is willing to do so.

   I think that the organizers have done a really good job in fulfilling the purpose. They managed to bring people from all walks of life to come together to perform, which really brings out Singapore as a country that emphasises on racial harmony. Friendships and bonds were made especially since I went there with my classmates! It is definitely a night which will always be forged in my heart. Thus I can proudly say that the organizers have made Chingay 2016 a really successful one!