CHINGAY 2013, FIRE IN SNOW - SINGAPORE

2/28/2013

THE LUNAR NEW YEAR ENDS WITH A PARADE

The Chingay Parade marks the end of the 15 day Lunar New Year celebratory period here in Singapore. "Chingay", derived from the Chinese term zhuangyi, meaning “the art of masquerading”. This is a reference to the stages or floats depicting religious and historical scenes, carried on the shoulders of men in religious festivals, rooted in China.

This parade, held at the Pit Building in Singapore, was quite a sight to see. There were 10,000 performers! Yes, you read that right, performers! Modern day pyrotechnic technology and the mass numbers of performers, making the parade a spectacular light and movement show that was pretty special.

Chingay parades in Singapore had ceased in 1906. Firecrackers had become a major element of the Lunar New Year period, however the use of firecrackers was getting out of hand, causing too many deaths, injuries and property damage, this led to them being banned. To fill the void, the Government re-established the Chingay Parade in 1972. Since then the parade has grown and grown. Participants from all walks of life and ethnicities here in Singapore taking part.

The Parade was due to start at 8pm with a pre-parade show starting at 7pm. The Pit Building in Singapore is home to the Formula One Grand Prix, held here in September. The venue lent itself perfectly for this parade.

During the Formula 1 Grand Prix, which is held in Singapore in September, this serves as the Pit Lanes. Great view of the Gardens By The Bay domes in the background.

Some snaps, taken pre-show, lots of performers wandering around.

Beautiful colors and faces!

We find our seats.

Our compare or MC

We make it to our seats. My husband found the compare or MC, quite annoying lol! It was quite cheesey I have to admit. A lot of folks did not arrive until nearer to 8pm, when the main show was due to start. In hindsight, this was the smart thing to do. Oh well, we will know for next year - not sure I will be able to drag my husband there again though. He is not the pom pom waving, doing the wave, cheering "Chingay, Chingay we are one", kind of guy lol!

Finally, after a lot of pom pom waving, whistle blowing and singing of "Chingay, Chingay, we are one" , the main show begins.

I really enjoyed myself at the parade, I enjoyed the music, which varied immensely. At one point, an old S Club song, Reach, came on and I was singing along (I can just hear the embarrassing groans from my kids now lol!) It brought back memories of my time in Connecticut when the kids were little and used to put on little shows (even louder groans of embarrassment!).

The floats were just amazing, so colorful and inventive. The most striking thing had to be the vast amount of performers in each segment. Like I said in the beginning, 10,000 - it just blows the mind! At one point there were 1,200 people, young and old doing Zumba. Check out this You Tube video.

We even came home with some goodies. Although hubby questioned the sense in bringing back gold pom pom's! Well, you never know when you are going to need gold pom pom's is my view ;-).

The Chingay 2013 free loot

Finally, to cap off this post. I put together my own video of some footage I took. I apologize in advance for the quality of this video. I took it with my Nikon D90, which is not so great for video. I need an I-Phone asap ha ha! Anyway, if you can stick with it, awesome!

CHINGAY INFO COURTESY OF SINGAPORE INFODEDIA

CHINGAY 2013 PROGRAM, COURTESY OF WEEKEND NOTES

more chingay 2013 info, courtesy of tha travel