If I had $2 for every time someone my age said that they didn’t have a clue about the Chingay Parade… I could probably buy a lot of things from Daiso. I mean, I’m guilty too for not realizing that the festival is happening so soon! This 10 and 11 February 2017 to be exact.
My angmoh friend asked me about it the other day, and it was embarrassing because all I could come up with was, “It’s colourful”. *Insert diao (-.-) face*
So I guess here’s a bit of a re-education for the lot of us clueless folk.
The Chingay Parade actually takes place in line with the annual Lunar New Year festival in Singapore and Malaysia. Apparently, back in 1973, fireworks were banned (fireworks are banned???) and so the government needed to give the people an alternative to keep up the festive cheer.
The more superstitious also saw the need for something to drive away the evil spirits, which was supposed to be the job of the fireworks. Ta-da! The first ever Chingay Parade was born.
The Chingay Parade is essentially a street festival (the largest one in Asia), and the first one started with lion and dragon dances, martial arts performances, stilt walkers and street opera. I mean by the looks of it, it’s basically our National Day celebrations, only in February.
The words “Ching” and “Gay” is the Min Nan dialect for ‘the Art of Decorating’. The floats and costumes are thus an iconic part of the parade, and seem to be getting bigger and better each year.
While the Chingay Parade started out as a mainly Chinese tradition, the festivities started to gradually include Malay, Indian and more international performances, making it the multicultural festival that it is today.
Don’t worry, I’m still quite confused as well. How are these pictures not from National Day?? I guess it’s quite nice having something of this scale to celebrate early on in the year, instead of always having to wait till August.
This year’s parade will take place at the F1 Pit Building, but just imagine –the original one was from Jalan Besar to Outram Park! Brazil has Carnaval, the U.S. has the Fourth of July Parade and we have the Chingay Parade.
That’s so much better than having nothing at all.
It’s now a celebration of our heritage and racial harmony, and if that’s too corny for you, look! Acrobats and pyrotechnics! This year’s parade promises spectacular water, fire, snow and lighting effects and a (legal) fireworks display of course.
There will also be re-creations of memorable performances from the 1970s, including the 1974 Tiger Float. There’s clearly no better time than the present to join in the festivities and get a look back to where it all started.
I don’t know about you, but the older I get, the more I seem to whine about not scoring tickets to the NDP. With the Chingay Parade, you can actually buy tickets and get some of your foreign/local friends together for a bit of culture.
It’s so easy to forget how #blessed we are to live in such a diverse society, so before the Chingay Parade becomes a thing of the past, let’s all get on board!
Dates: 10 & 11 February 2017, 8pm (Pre-parade: 7pm)
Prices: Starts from S$28.50 (20% discount for PAssion Card Holders)
Chingay Parade 2017: F1 Pit Building (Next to Singapore Flyer) | Tickets | Website
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