Ted's friend from work suggested strongly that we should attend the Chingay Parade while we were here. I am so glad he did because it just might be my favorite thing that we have done in all the time we have been here. What is it? It started in 1973 after the Singapore government prohibited firecrackers at Chinese New Year's celebrations. There are a lot of people living pretty much on top of each other on this island so fires can be devastating. Now, the Chingay parade celebrates not just Chinese culture but all of the populations that make up the people of Singapore today and some that don't!
I picked up Eleanor from school early so we would have time to park, eat, and find our way to the stadium. We met Ted at a food court for dinner.
Then we joined the massive crowd on the streets making our way to the stadium, One Pit, which also acts as the pit for the Formula One event Ted attended in the fall. We saw Ted's co-worker Rajesh walking around and he told us that while the tickets say to take your seats by 7, we should really walk around and see all the people setting up before heading to our seats around 7:15. These are some of the performers we ran into.
This is a shot of two big towers in the Central Business District, the Millennial and Centennial Towers. Ted's office is in the slightly smaller, round one on the right.
These are food-shaped balloons at a mock hawker stall.
At 7:15, we made our way to our seats. We had to cross the parade route to get there.
The sun is setting, the show is nearing.
Before the actual show starts, there is a prelude during which we sing, "Country Road." I posted this video to Facebook, but here it is again. Chingay Parade 1-Country Road
We took a ton of pictures and videos and I'm no dummy. I know probably no one other than my own family will watch these videos, but I put them all here so that we will have them together and can watch them next year when we won't be here to attend the actual Chingay parade. Check out the pictures and if they look interesting, click the video link. Why not? They are very short.
The show was divided into 5 Segments, the first of which included Song of Righteousness and Peach Blossoms, beautiful subdued dancers in flowing costumes.
Chingay Parade 2- Peach Blossoms (33 sec.)
Another part of the first segment was this collection of dancers with a Phantom theme. There was a hip-hop portion. Chingay Parade 3-Phantom of the Opera (41 sec.)
The biggest part of this first segment was the Chinese New Year portion. It started with this amazing fire display. Chingay Parade 4-Fire Display (34 sec.)
The fire was followed by a glowing super-long glowing dragon dance and some gorgeously-costumed stilt-walkers. Chingay Parade 5-Dragon and Stilts (36 sec.)
I thought that was cool enough, but suddenly there were exploding firecrackers at the feet of the performers. Then, the stilt-walkers started shooting sparks high into the air, too. Big oohs and ahs from the crowd. Chingay Parade 6-Stilts and Firecrackers (47 sec.)
Another dragon dance followed, but this one was lit up with LED lights. Chingay Parade 7-LED Dragon (31 sec.)
What happened next blew my mind. A light-up, glowing centipede starting spitting fire at a dude battling him, protected only by a small shield. Pretty spectacular. Chingay Parade 8-Auspicious Centipede (25 sec.)
Then, the first giant lit-up float rolled out. Mind blown again. (Yeah, it looks a little phallic at first but don't worry, it's a family show) Chingay Parade 9-First Float (31 sec.)
The next group is some guys carrying very large flagpoles and lanterns. It seems easy but as you'll see from the very start of this video, it's not as easy as they usually make it look. Chingay Parade 10-Almost Lantern Drop (29 sec.)
We had watched a small piece of a Chinese opera performance outside before the show, but there was a pretty dramatic parade performance too. Chingay Parade 11A-Chinese Opera (46 sec.) and Chingay Parade 11B-Chinese Opera (52 sec.)
Aside from the finale, the next part was my favorite. Segment 2 featured acts from the different populations of peoples that make up Singapore, other than the Chinese featured in the first segment: Indians, Malays, Japanese, Indonesians, South Koreans, Phillipines, and somehow France?
The Indian part was super fun and energetic. Changay Parade 12-Indian Item (Raja Naga Jothi) (40 sec.) I am also posting two parts of their fun dance because it was great and the crowd was going nuts. Chingay Parade 13-Indian Dance (47 sec.) and Chingay Parade 14-Indian Dance (18 sec.)
Malay Item (22 sec.)
Japanese Item (46 sec.)
Indonesian Item (32 sec.)
French? (17 sec.)
Phillipines Item (1:02)
And I don't care who you are or how many shows you have seen, you have never seen a kid happier to be performing than this guy. He was a having a ball!
Segment 3 was definitely for the locals. The first part had people from the Culinary Institute dressed up pushing food carts with all the township names in lights. The theme was "home, hope, and heart." Chingay Parade 20-Home, Hope, Heart (24 sec.) It was followed by zumba dancers. Yes, zumba has officially taken over the world. What was super cool about this fun part though, was that some of the dancers were Muslim women with their head-coverings. It was pretty cool to see the unity and the fun! Chingay Parade 21-Passion Zumba (22 sec.)
Segment 5 was the finale. First, big floats came out some with lights and people, others looked like large towers of ice. Chingay Parade 22-Finale Ice (49 sec.)
And then it snowed, guys. Snow! It was magical! Chingay Parade 23-Finale Snow (34 sec.)
And then, the sky exploded. Chingay Parade 24-Finale Snow and Fireworks (1:45)
And the participants went just a little bit crazy playing in the snow. Hey, it doesn't snow here very often! Chingay Parade 25-Finale Playing in the Snow (21 sec.)
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