National Day celebrations continues

The National Day celebrations continues for the whole month of August with events and functions being held in the city and in the heartland. Our Teban Gardens recently had our estate spruced up, those blocks under up-grading being repainted. A large billboard erected in front of the Market/Food Court and some blocks are dressed with flags, banners and buntings. A large 3 piece-tent  to house a community dinner held at the open field.

 

Billboard at the Market, Teban Gardens

Downtown at the Esplanade by the Marina Bay, people gathered around the so called “Durian” a nick name given because of the unique thorny roofing of the two ‘theatres of the Bay’ that looks like durian.

 

Our Durian, “Theatres of the Bay” at Esplanade.

View of the scenic bay from the outdoor theatre.

A scenic view of the bay with sky scrappers mushrooming in the back ground, and a solar-powered electric driven taxi boat packed with tourists sailing silently across. 

 

A Chinese rock band thrilling the crowd.

A Chinese rock band thrilling the crowd at the outdoor theatre which included  people specially brought in from the ‘Homes’ to enjoy the concert. The free shows are sponsored by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) for the ‘gift of Music’ in conjunction with the National Day Celebrations. Top local performers like Matthew and the Mandarins, the singer Robert Fernando, Vernon Cornelius participate to show their talents.  Can be seen in the background the 3 towers of the ‘Sands Intergraded Resort still under construction and expected to be operational by next year.

 

The Peranakan ‘Ma’in Wayang Company stage a show.

The Peranakans originally are from Malacca and the story goes that the Chinese Emperor Yong Le sent the princess Hang Le Poh to Sultan Mansur for marriage. Accompanying her were an entourage of 200 maidens. The Sultan gave her the land called Bukit China as her new home. As time went on there were inter-marriages with the locals, resulted the emergence of the Peranakan community; the Babas and Nonyas. They spoke Bahasa Melayu and especially the women adopted Malay attire (sarong, the exquisite beauty of the embroidered kebaya, baju panjang, selendang etc…) the men preferred Western dress. However they maintained some Traditional Chinese practices, ancestral worship and customs.  

 

The Nonas (maidens front row) in tight-fitting colourful sarong and kebaya, entertaining the crowd with their songs in Malay and English.

 

The Cathedral of the Good Shepherd

I was around town so I dropped in at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. The oldest Roman Catholic Church in Singapore built in the year 1832, just 13 years after the founding of Singapore by Sir Stamford Raffles. Also it has the oldest functioning  pipe organ built in 1912.

 

 

Above the entrance into the Cathedral hangs the crest of our Archbishop with the ‘motto’ in Latin "OMNIA OMNIBUS" meaning "All Things To All Men" (1 Cor 9:22). Latin is the official language of the Catholic Church since Roman times. Other elements in the crest are fire and the Holy Spirit, a cross, the Bible, waves and a fish. The design includes 4 rows of chords designating the position of Archbishop. Placed in the hallow is the statue of the Good Shepherd. Our Archbishop Nicolas Chia is the Shepherd for the Catholic flock in Singapore. For sake of information the world Catholic population has reached 1.13 billion. Nicolas was ordained on the 7th October, 2001 and was from our Holy Cross Parish at Clementi Ave 1. He is known to us as our beloved “Papa Chia”.

 

 

Archbishop’s House

A beautiful 2-storey Colonial-style bungalow house is the residence of our Archbishop Nicolas Chia, located at No.31 Victoria St.

 

 

In the grounds of the Cathedral stands a bronze statue of the late Pope John Paul II, the 264th successor of St. Peter handed down in un-broken line for more than 2000 years ago. It was erected to commemorate the  25th Anniversary of Diplomatic relationship between the Holy See and the Republic of Singapore on 23/06/2006. Also for the 20th Anniversary of Pope John Paul’s Pastoral visit to Singapore on 20/11/2006 in which I attended the celebration of the Papal Mass at the Kallang Stadium.

 

The ‘Phantom of the Opera?’

From the Cathedral I crossed the road to Bras Basah and came across this guy, he was dressed in Medieval costume.  He looked good and I thought he was the ‘Phantom of the Opera’. However I managed to get a shot together and this is for ‘real’

 

  

The ‘Living World’

 

And these are not for ‘real’, they are painted over bronze sculpture at the Singapore Arts Museum (SAM) at the former St. Joseph’s Institution, now turned into Museum. The work of a local artist named Ju Ming in 1986. One time it was at the National Museum, Stamford Road and now re-located to Bras Basah Road.