The Chingay Parade! (Feb. 11)

“The word Chingay is from the Hokkien dialect, of which the Mandarin equivalent is Zhuang Yi, meaning ‘the art of masquerade.’” - http://www.chingay.org.sg/2011/about.asp  

The parade is a yearly Singaporean celebration and is routed through the Grand Prix Start/Finish Stadium near the Singapore Flyer.  You had to buy tickets for the parade which enabled an excellent view but also allowed more of a party atmosphere instead of just floats and dancing going by.

Loud doesn’t even begin to describe the sounds; I think the kids around me did better than I did.  I was regretting not bringing my ear plugs!  As you will see in the video, the fireworks at the end of the parade went off almost right above us – I don’t think I’ve ever been that close!

Even though the Parade was during the Chinese New Year celebration calendar (15 days starting from Feb. 3), there were many different cultures represented, especially the Malays.  If you didn’t get the “subtly” that they were promoting unity, the song at the end, “We Are One” was sure to ignite the theme – “Passing on the Lamp.”  By the end, Paul and I felt little like were we on the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disneyland.  I don’t want to give the wrong impression that we didn’t enjoy the parade – I just saw it as an interesting cultural phenomenon and have wondered if the US wouldn’t be better off if more of these kinds of activities were present.

Seeing how proud the Singaporeans were of their country was quite touching; the effort to include so many cultures (including Mexicans…referencing the Mexican Embassy Floats) was seamless and didn’t seem too put-on.

Just take a look all of the cameras - sometimes it was hard to see!  What a kick!

The parade was divided into segments, so I’ll post in the same way:

SEGMENT 1: GRAND OPENING

The Grand Opening was full of bright lights, fire, firework and confetti – have fun with the bright pictures and video!

SEGMENT 2: BEAUTIFUL CULTURES

My favorite float was the Peacock – absolutely beautiful!

SEGMENT 3: OUR ATTRACTIONS

Paul’s favorite out of this segment was the Giraffes from Animal Kingdom – they are kick!  The trees are just a little too freaky for me – Jim Henson-like…

SEGMENT 4: INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPATION

This segment was especially interesting to us because of the Mexico float – we just thought it was odd that we would go all the way to Singapore and have quite a bit of Mexican representation.

SEGMENT 5: MOVES! COMMUNITY, WE ARE ONE!

Okay, this was the segment that felt like we were on the Disneyland ride – It’s a Small World.  I didn’t notice it at first (I guess I was a little slow…) but after awhile community groups just kept coming and the dance never changed, nor did the song.  Later, Paul researched and found out that for this segment there were choreographed steps for each and every community group that went through – 24 groups!  And, the same song over and over again!  What a kick!  Here's just a little taste of it...

SEGMENT 6: WARISAN KU GEMILANG (MALAY COMMUNITY PERFORMING ARTS)

This segment was a colorful and quite an artistic representation of the culture!

SEGMENT 7: GRAND FINALE – PASSING ON THE LAMP

There were over 2000 youth represented just in this part of the parade!

 Fireworks, Fireworks, Fireworks...

After the parade, we noticed how bad the mud was! (It had rained earlier in the day - we thought that we were going to miss the parade because of the rain) Take a look at my shoes!

 This was kind of kick - as a last note.  In a neighborhood close to where we are staying, someone had a float of their own.  I don't remember seeing it in the parade.  Of course, this was also near a club where women wear numbers pinned to their dresses (some sort of sex club??), so who knows what we walked by - Paul wasn't in the mood to dilly-dally.  Kind of seedy...