Timeline Of Annual Events In Singapore

Thaipusam

Thaipusam is a Hindu festival in honour of Lord Subramaniam, son of Shiva, and is a day of purification and penance during which devotees make offerings of thanks for blessings received through fulfilment of vows. The festival centres on the two-mile (4km) procession of penitents who carry ‘kavadis’ (large wood or metal frames) hung with offerings such as milk, honey or flowers and decorated with bells and peacock feathers. These loaded shrines are gruesomely supported by heavy spikes, hooks and barbs driven into their bodies, and some participants pierce their tongues and cheeks with skewers and spikes. Supporters will gather around the devotees chanting prayers and encouraging them along the way. Devotees undergo a period of spiritual preparation before the procession and enter a trance-like state in order to tolerate the pain involved.

Chinese Lunar New Year

Lunar New Year is the most important festival in the Chinese calendar and is a time to exchange well wishes and gifts of good fortune. The streets of Chinatown become lit with red lanterns, twinkling lights and elaborate decorations, fireworks colour the sky and busy street bazaar stalls are laden with Chinese delicacies and symbols of prosperity and good luck. Part of the festivities is the Chingay Parade, the largest and grandest street procession in the country, which is a multi-cultural and cosmopolitan parade featuring some of the finest performing groups from around the world. This colourful event presents lavishly decorated floats, stilt-walkers, lion dancers, fire jugglers, and music performances. Another annual New Year extravaganza is the River Hong Bao, which is a cultural event including a range of performances from top national artists, as well as art and craft stalls and floats; spectacular fireworks displays take place on the opening and closing nights.

Singapore Arts Festival

Recognised as one of Asia’s top arts festivals, the Singapore Arts Festival is a celebration of dance, drama and music from around the world, embracing classical as well as the avant-garde, cultural diversity and the latest in artistic innovation. Audiences are treated to performances of creative freedom, from ballet to street shows within the Festival Village and on the fringes, as well as workshops and talks in venues throughout the city.

Festival of the Hungry Ghosts

For a month each year Taoists believe the gates of Hell are opened to allow the spirits of the dead to roam the earth. To appease these ghosts, outdoor entertainment and lavish feasts are offered to satisfy the restless spirits and to ward off bad fortune in their lives. Celebratory dinners are held, and shows and concerts such as traditional puppetry and Chinese opera take place on every street corner. In addition, candles and joss sticks are lit in front of homes and small altars are set up where money, incense and paper goods in the shape of furniture and other everyday objects are burnt as an offering for the ghosts to use in the afterlife.

Moon Cake Festival

This festival, also known as the Lantern Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival, commemorates the 14th-century revolution led by Yuan Zhang who smuggled notes inside moon cakes and used lighted lanterns as a signal to launch the revolt. One of the highlights of the festival is the Moon Cake Fair where hundreds of festive stalls line the streets of Chinatown selling an astonishing variety of moon cakes, traditional paper lanterns, decorations and other delicacies. Children parade down the streets with their brightly lit lanterns in the Children’s Lantern Procession. The Chinese Garden becomes a fairyland of lights and colours for the Lantern Festival, and there is also a range of cultural shows and performances including lion and dragon dancing, Chinese instrumentalists and craftsmen.

Thimithi Festival

The major event at this Hindu festival is the breathtaking fire-walking ceremony in which devotees honour the goddess Draupadi. Legend has it that she proved her fidelity and innocence to her husband by walking barefoot over burning coals, and Hindu priests and devotees demonstrate their faith, courage and endurance by walking across a 21ft (7m) pit of glowing coals without showing any signs of pain. In this test of purity devotees believe that they will only be burnt if they are impure. Afterwards they wade through a pit of goat's milk and then stain their feet with yellow turmeric.