Chingay 2016: Lights of Legacy, Brighter Singapore.

This year, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Chingay 2016 NE Show with my fellow Year 2s. Although this was not my first time at Chingay(I had also gone to watch Chingay 2015), I think this year was especially meaningful, surrounded with people whom I know. There were a lot of performances during the parade, which were also meaningful to me at the same time.

I think that the purpose of this year's Chingay Parade is very simple: to promote the values and wisdom of the founding fathers of Singapore, like hardwork and harmony between people. This was evident throughout the parade, as people from various countries and races come together to perform different performances, even though not every contingent could make it to the NE Show. For example this contingent by the People's Association Youth Movement:

This displayed the unity of people as everyone came together to 

as well as this combined contingent by the Singapore Pools, Tote Board and Singapore Turf Club:

After doing research about the first Chingay Parade, I found out that the first Parade was simply a celebration for Chinese New Year where firecrackers would be popped so as to compensate for the ban on firecrackers earlier in 1972, as it was customary to have firecrackers during Chinese New Year. It was only given a twist when a multicultural flavour was added into the Parade from 1976. However, today Chingay is a national festival, celebrated by Singaporeans across the island as well as the world.

I think that the purpose of Chingay changed due to the cultural diversity that is prevalent in Singapore. Our population is made up of many different races, and when they also began to join the Parade, it started to stop being just a parade for Chinese New Year and became a festival that every one could enjoy. This is shown by the