CHINGAY!!!

        Chingay was a word that I heard only one week before the actual event.Upon hearing the word 'Chingay', I was really confused over what the word meant as I have never heard of the word before. Adding to the fact that I do not usually pay attention to Singapore's local events such as Chingay and the National Day Parade, I would not be able to know what was did Chingay mean or stand for. Upon hearing what Chingay actually meant, I was immediately interested in the event. On 21 Janurary, we finally went to the F1 Pit where Chingay was held. Apparently, this year was its 45th Anniversary and this year's theme was "We Care Singapore". A few minutes before our bus stopped at the F1 Pit Building, our chairperson, Huiling, suddenly gave out ponchos to everyone without an umbrella on the bus. Curious about what happened, I decided to look out of the window and I saw raindrops on the glass. 

        After realising that it was raining, I could feel the class being not as cheerful as when we left. However, once we left the bus, we realised that the rain had subsided from a downpour to a drizzle. Upon finding out that the rain was now only a drizzle, the boys started to play with their hair and made many cool hairstyles which kind of lifted our spirits. Also, our chairperson Huiling (also known as Mother Huiling) saw that and told the boys to stop fooling around and cover their heads in order not to feel sick.

        Upon reaching our seats, we were greeted by a goodie bag which consists of food, a pompom and a star shaped glowstick which we used when they dimmed the light. This year, the guest of honour was the one and only Mrs Josephine Teo! There were many stunning performances which were performed by representatives of all the races in Singapore. People of different races, organisations and countries all came forward to perform for Chingay, according to my friends, 2 juniors in our school actually performed in it! A friend of mine from Nan Hua Secondary School also took part in the performance as a dancer. This shows that people of all ages were also allowed to perform. 

        After these performances, they brought in floats (above) which were lit up and various colours started to appear every now and then as the backstage crew did some tricks and made the lighting of the entire place change colours. Every now and then, the emcees will encourage us to wave our glowsticks in the air or shake our pompoms. Also, they played various 新谣during the show, there was even a dragon dance before the floats came in and amazed everybody. Also, as we continued to watch the show, a few kind souls in our class decided to share their food with the rest of the class such
as potato chips, this was the first time that our class actually cheered together, bonded together and shared things with each other without really quarreling and fighting with each other. For once, I feel that the class had truly bonded even though nobody mentions it aloud. Despite the ongoing drizzle, everyone's spirit were so high that if you jumped off it, you would get severely injured. Finally, the rain stopped which seemed to have lifted the spirits of the performers even more. Then, to end the event, fake snow came out of pillars and fireworks were set off, ending Chingay 2017. Then, popular music started to play and surprisingly, everybody started to sing along with it! It was really heartwarming to see that all my classmates singing together and having a great time all together. It was a super wonderful experience which made me feel very excited and elated, if given the chance, I will definitely watch Chingay again.

        According to my research online, in the past, Chingay was created to compensate the ban of fireworks which was a customary New Year practice to drive away evil spirits and to celebrate Chinese New Year for the chinese people living in Singapore. However, now, it has became a celebration for people of different ages, races, religions and even countries to come and perform to celebrate Chingay as one. Also, adding different races to perform also makes it more interesting as in the past only the Chinese performed and usually it would be lion dance and dragon dance but with other races, there would be more things to watch.

        I personally think that Chingay has fulfilled its purpose to bring many different races together and celebrate their differences as one. Due to the fact that each community performing at Chingay has their own unique way of doing so and their own unique culture were shown to people who watched Chingay. Many different cultures being shown at once made us Singaporeans feel even more bonded with each culture as we will bond to feel that some of the cultures seem familiar either because they will either be our own culture or our close friends' culture. In my case, I definitely felt the bond between the performances when they performed together as a whole which made me feel the spirit and closeness between one another. Just by watching them, I was convinced that people in this country would be able to celebrate their differences and celebrate Chinese New Year as one.