Chingay Parade 2010

We were lucky enough to have our first guest this past weekend from India. That is right, we are an international stopover for more than just people traveling from the US. We have an extra bedroom and we know how to use it. Luckily my uncle Wally Wertsch stopped over from Hyderabad for the weekend to take in some Chinese New Years excitement.

We had convinced him that this was the weekend to stop by and it was a weekend of culture, excitement and sensory overload. This was all capped off by the Chingay 2010 parade.

The parade was supposed to be a celebration of week one of Chinese New Years and celebrate the half way mark of the holiday.

It started out a little non-traditional as you can see from the photo below which was the first group of performers.




Also note that products that look like weapons are forbidden by customs, so these guys really snuck them into the country.  We heard rumors that these were actually real police men.  If this is true, it's obvious the police force here doesn't have enough to do!

Once the storm troopers were done sweeping the crowd for safety the music started blaring, more fireworks went off (in case you haven't noticed they love fireworks in Singapore), and the celebration started.


Confetti was flying everywhere


Fire breathers light up the night



There was dragon dancing



There was lion dancing



There were floats to commemorate the lion city



There was traditional dancing and there was...


A raucous celebration for 90 minutes. My eyes hurt, my ears hurt, and my throat hurt from screaming but it was amazing. The visual and auditory stimulus was overwhelming and they really crammed a lot in the parade. I was so glad we went, so happy to be part of Chingay 2010 and cannot wait until next year.

See below for a couple more pictures of the finale...enjoy!!!