Happy Birthday, Singapore!

This past Saturday was Singapore’s 49^th National Day. For my American readers, it would be akin to 4^th of July.  National Day commemorates the independence which Singapore gained from Malaysia on August 9, 1965. National Day is a public holiday. Many people are off that day and some businesses close.  Families often take outings or if they are lucky enough to have won tickets, they go to the national festivities or watch the fireworks show in person. 

National Day comes with a lot of celebration and though it’s only one day, the holiday season seems to go on and on. The three main events of National Day are a huge parade, the prime minister’s speech, and a fireworks show.  Each of these events takes months and months of preparation and patience.  Several weeks before August 9^th, neighborhoods become full of Singaporean flags hanging from balconies and colorful banners with the head of the Merlion, one of Singapore’s national symbols.  Local businesses and community associations display their pride by posting large red and white (the colors of the flag) billboards. These billboards often include sentiments like “Happy Birthday, Singapore” or “Such and Such Association is pleased to celebrate the 49^th National Day.”  Shopping centers will play nationalistic songs and “Happy Birthday” over their speakers. In school, students study the meaning of the holiday and the younger ones do craft projects about it. They also sport fake tattoos of the flag or the National Day slogan, which was "Our People, Our Home"  this year.

Overall, National Day is an emphatic reminder that there’s a lot of Singaporean pride to go around.  Rightfully, there should be. For a country with limited resources and a constantly growing population, it seems (at least to an outsider) eager and able to take on the social, political, and economic challenges of the coming years.