Happy Chinese New Year 2021!
Actually in Japan, we don’t celebrate Chinese New Year, just ‘normal’ new year which is the beginning of the year. It’s interesting since it seems as if Japan is a minor country in Asia where people don’t celebrate Chinese New Year.
Until I stayed in Singapore where many people celebrate Chinese New Year, I personally didn’t know about it..... (shame on me.....)
In 2019, I had an opportunity to stay in Singapore for a half year and experienced very diverse Singapore culture.
One of events happened in Chinese near year period was Chingay parade.
Chingay parade is a street parade and basically it celebrate Chinese Goddess and Chinese new year.
Basically what I understood back then was “something will be on! Let’s check it out!” Hahaha
Actually I got to know this parade right after I arrived in Singapore in September 2018. Since there is a relatively big Japanese community in Singapore called the Japanese association, I was looking for an opportunity to get to know more people starting with Japanese people. There is a well established Japanese community and they were asking for volunteers for the Chingay parade. I really didn’t know what it was but wanted to join them. However, they had a very strict rules who can be volunteered.
1. You should be a proper member of the community ( meaning you pay a good amount of membership fee for the community)
2. You must attend all the practices
I find those very Japanese especially No.2. You need to dedicate yourself to the community and I bet that says “you need to attend all the practices and also never be late!” Haha
Anyways I was not qualified and I gave up to be a performer.
The pic above is a performance of the Japanese community.
The performances are based on countries and also companies. Every organization had a different character and I didn’t get bored of looking at them.
It is kinda same feeling when I watch football games but somehow I got excited to see Japanese performance.....
According to their official website, in 2021, this parade will be done digitally. This might be worth checking out!!!! https://www.chingay.gov.sg/
I hope in the near future as the picture we can gather at the same place to celebrate and enjoy this kind of events tho.....
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