Roger and Stephen in Singapore

Thursday, 9 August 2012

Happy 47th Birthday Singapore

Today is National Day celebrating Singapore's independence from Malaysia in 1965. A large parade is held on the floating stage on the Marina and is very popular with Singaporeans who go into a ballot for tickets. The grandstand holds around 27000 people who predominately wear the national colours of red and white. Up to an estimated 150000 people will also line the Marina tonight to see the street procession and also the finale fireworks.
From late June there have been rehearsals for the parade on each weekend and the rehearsal includes the fireworks each week . School children get to be spectators to the preview shows and the children all go to school the day before National day in red and white clothing.

 The theme for today's National Day Parade (NDP) 2012 is “Loving Singapore, Our Home”
This years logo is inspired by Singapore's national flower the "Vanda Miss Joaquim" orchid, the NDP 2012 logo reminds Singaporeans from all walks of life, reminding them of the garden city they call "Home".

The colours of the logo reflect the vitality and diversity of Singapore people. The red heart embedded within the logo symbolises the love for Singapore people and the nation. The lip of the orchid is represented as the number "47", highlighting the nation’s 47th birthday this year.
The design is also reminiscent of a star; taken together with the child-like writing depicting this year’s theme, the "Orchidstar" represents the hopes and dreams through the generations. Its meant to remind all Singaporeans of how hard they have worked for their achievements, and encourages them to reach out together for a brighter future.

A theme song is also released and this is on high rotation with the National anthem in the supermarkets and on TV.

Business and also residences are flying the Singapore flag and many shops are having $47 or 47% off sales. An article in the newspaper reminded citizens that the flag should not hang out with the laundry on private balconies !

This years logo

The theme song

TV ad

Billboard

Street decorations

The stage

The grandstand at the Marina

Billboard

Flags on apartment balconies

Thursday, 2 August 2012

Hari Raya Puasa festival

Since the 20th of July, Muslims in Singapore are fasting from dawn to sunset and will celebrate the end of the Ramadan on Sunday 19th of August. This festival is known as Hari Raya Puasa or just Hari Raya.

Hari Raya Puasa are Malay words which literally mean “Day of celebration”. Hari Raya is the time to seek forgiveness, reconciliation and renewal of relationships. Muslims recite additional prayers and take this opportunity to cleanse themselves spiritually. The fasting that they undertake is believed to instill in them patience, humility and sacrifice.

During the festival a huge markets has been set up in Geylang Serai and Kampong Glam. These markets become very crowded after sunset with people buying new clothes, furnishings for the house and traditional foods. As they will do a lot of entertaining on the day of Hari Raya lots of gifts for family and friends are on sale in forms of sweets and biscuits.

Muslims families usually dress in the same colour on the day to signify their sense of unity and harmony. As the Hari Raya holiday falls on a Sunday this year , Monday is a holiday in lieu and Muslims will use the holiday go to visit family and friends in Malaysia.

Many shops have the traditional Ketupat decorations up for the festival. Ketupat are woven baskets that usually contain rice and then steamed and served during the celebrations.