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This October has been a popular month for cultural festivities, there was the Mid-autumn festival, Deepavali and the upcoming Hari Raya. For many Singaporeans, these festivities had provided us with another opportunity to spend some good money, the connection being - cultural festivities in Singapore are slowly losing its status as a celebration of tradition and heritage. Instead, it is entrenched within us and even extending to the foreigners living here - festivities have been blown up as a marketing exercise.
Oh, Chang- O, no one cared that you flew to the moon 2000 years before Neil Armstrong did.
Firstly we ask what do the Mid-Autumn Festival ignites in us as we claim to be celebrating it. Do we see it as a celebration of abundance and togetherness, or an end to a harvesting season with a bumper yield? Do we sit in a garden to admire the autumn moon, eating moon cakes while sipping Chinese tea?
Well, the answer is no. Partly because the haze had kidnapped the moon this year, or that Singaporeans are not farmers who cares about the end of a crop harvest. There are elaborate lantern displays around Chinatown and the Chinese garden, noisy electric lanterns that children carry around gleefully. We do eat mooncakes too, in fact, it is an industry of mooncake as bakeries and restaurants outplay each other with their elaborate fillings and gift boxes. What is lotus when you can have a durian flavored one?
The last I remember, even Starbucks jumped on the mooncake bandwagon. Mocha Caramel Mooncake, I never did try.
Deepavali
A celebration for Hindus and Sikhs, frequently misunderstood as a festival for Indians only
How grand are the celebrations here? For starters, there are the lights, we in Singapore loves big bright lights; Deepavali being the Festival of Lights after all. In a way, it is a festival celebrated by all, even for the Non-Hindus, who take it as an opportunity to enjoy a long weekend, travel agencies coming up with Deepavali promotions of holiday destinations.
So celebrations locally kick-start with different agendas from different groups, with the fervor concentrated around the small ethnic area of Little India as oppose to an entire nation in celebratory mode. Roadside stalls selling food and clothes are aplenty, marketed more as part of a Uniquely Singapore campaign. At the end of the day, we recognize that Deepavali is essentially celebrated by only a small minority of Singaporeans, resulting in a lukewarm response in most part of the country.
Bling my eyes please
According to Srinidta (a computing student from India), “foreign students here generally do not have the luxury to spending Diwali with their families, professors do invite some of us to their houses to join in the festivities, but it is more likely for fellow students to group together as a form of celebration, and most commonly, the spread of food will be less and the meeting place not traditionally decorated."
And as a localized form of culture, not only will there be a tempting spread of sweets such as halwa and laddu, favorites like chicken tandoori and fish head curry, it is not surprising to find traditional food from the Malay culture such as Kueh during celebrations, giving Deepavali in Singapore a local twist.
Whether it is the death of a culture or a diffusion of one, cultural festivities are parts of Singaporean society; rejoiced in a commercialized manner or quietly sharing its original roots within a small community.
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