Reflection on Chingay Parade

This year, the Y2 cohort went to the Chingay Parade 2016, themed "Lights of Legacy, Brighter Singapore". From a CCE period previously, it was mentioned that Chingay was originally to celebrate Chinese New Year, since fire crackers were banned from Singapore. As time passes, I think that this not only celebrates the festive occasion, it also brings people of different cultures together since many other people like the Malays and Eurasians joined in the parade. This encourages racial harmony among Singaporeans and to remember the values of our country, which mainly are: Racial Harmony and Social Cohesion, Caring Community, Resilience as a Nation and a Can-Do Singapore Spirit. 

As mentioned, people of other cultures and races joined in the celebration, bringing the motive of the parade to a different level. Now, not only it was a method to celebrate Chinese New Year, it is like a fashion show to showcase the wide variety of backgrounds, cultures and races that make up Singapore. For example, I saw performances from Japan and for Chinese New Year, there were many different types of decorated dragons,which illuminated the dark night, and lion dances. The colours and floats were creative and unique, much to our delight and excitement. I found that the performances were almost like a second RV60, with lion dances, drums and the dances were very unique as well. I really enjoyed watching the acrobats which were suspended in mid air. I thought it was very cool that they were able to do flips and other moves in mid air. 

I felt that the organisers had done a good job bringing people of different aspects and of different race and ages together for one segment, displaying some of the core values that our country is trying to promote. Some of these participants are even younger than us or could be already in the pioneer generation, but they still had the Can-Do Singapore spirit. I heard from my 1J junior who participated in the performances that she was very satisfied with her performance because there was much teamwork, and that she was able to meet more people of different races and ages from her community.