Happy Birthday Singapore!

The National Day Parade is one of Singapore’s grand annual traditions, and the elaborate celebrations were upsized this year as 2019 also marks Singapore’s Bicentennial – 200 years since Sir Stamford Raffles arrived on the island and founded Singapore as one of the key trading ports in the British colony. Every year, the highly coveted tickets are allocated via computerised ballot, and only citizens and permanent residents can apply. 

Back in May, I remember noticing the balloting deadline pop up one evening on Facebook – with just a few minutes to spare until the midnight cutoff! I just made it. I’d been told that getting a ticket is better than winning the lottery (wouldn’t quite say that), but we were pretty excited to hit the jackpot for this year’s Bicentennial celebration. 

The parade pretty much follows the same format every year: lots of song and dance involving various schools and community groups, a military parade and aerial display, parade floats and a revisiting of how the country has grown since independence – a celebration of the struggles overcome and the achievements each generation has made – topped off with a huge firework display. 

The whole parade is televised live, so the kids were hoping to get another shot at being on TV for the second time this year. Sadly I don’t think we could be picked out on from the 27,000-strong crowd. It was a vast sea of red and white (perhaps we should have flouted the rules and worn green!) but nevertheless we had a great time soaking up the parade atmosphere and enjoying the festivities. So just in case we never manage to get tickets again, we made a little video to remember it all!