Because Singapore is a multiracial country and because Singapore is small, the differences of each unique race and their culture must be maintained with harmony, hence racial harmony day is held in 21 July in Singapore.
Many sights can be seen when Singapore holds the Chinese New Year festival. Though not as traditional as it originally was supposed to be, many Chinese make use of those few days to reunite with their families to have an annual "reunion dinner" with the whole family tree. What it means is that you get to meet and make friends with a few uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins and even grandparents. Ask any Chinese and they will most likely have at least 20 people in their family tree.
To an outsider, going into a house of a meeting place for reunion dinner of a Chinese feels like a market where everyone belongs to the same family. To the person him or herself, it is like meeting up with your family where some members live far away.
The joy and laughter of the Chinese New Year cannot be explained using words. Just like the festivals which Malays and Indians hold, only when you stand by your friends with their families and experience the festival together, do you truly realize and understand that another world so big with a kaleidoscope of colors is just beneath the surface for you to discover, only that it is up to you to make the first move.
Just as the Chinese in Singapore holds Chinese New Year annually, Malays and Indians both celebrate their own festivals every year. All the races in Singapore respect each other and live in harmony, being as close to each others as neighbors and even as friends.
Tolerating each other is the basic sign of respect. No matter how grudgingly or happily different races do that, it shows that with understanding many misunderstandings which cause so much war and trouble for the world is actually able to be solved easily, just by taking some time off aiming guns at each other, sitting down in a circle and knowing about one another.
Signing Off~ Yong Jian
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