National Day

In the past few days I've been asked quite often whether Britain had a National Day. And, somewhat awkwardly, I say not really. It's quite truthful - we don't really. I mean, we have Saint's Days for each country, which are sort of celebrated. And we have the Queen's official birthday celebrations - which has some form of national celebration in it. But none of them really make a proper Nation Day along the lines of Bastille Day, Independence Day, or Singapore's National Day.

Over here we are given the day off - always good. The main event is a military parade following by a show. This year, as a five year 1 off, they paraded their tanks and other military equipment as well.

The military parade is quite sweet - in addition to the Guards of Honour from the armed forces, the police, and even scouts and girl guides are involved, and culminates in a fly past of various planes and helicopters.

The show is probably best analogised to an opening ceremony at the Olympics - full of symbolism, this time for Singapore's flag. It is quite impressive - very colourful, very slick, all very impressive. I have a feeling that if we tried it in the UK, it would just look a bit twee.


25000 people get to watch the parade each year, and for those who didn't get tickets in the ballot, you can watch on tv. In fact, if you want to watch on tv, it's hard not watch it - it is shown in parallel on 4 different channels, with what I suspect is the same scripted commentary in each of the 4 main languages here.


Overall the whole thing is incredibly slick and impressive - they use the best Singapore has to offer - starting in sunshine (there are rumours that they seed the clouds) and then the sunsets to allow better colours and fireworks. It is located in the equivalent of the Mall - which also happens to be overlooked by Singapore's most impressive architecture.


Of course - this level of choreography does not happen without rehearsal. For the past 6 saturdays the road past work has been closed as it is the staging area. Apparently the rehearsals have even included the fireworks displays... Also - when I've not been struggling to get passed the road blocks at work, the fly past preparations have gone passed my flat. And not only have they been practicing for 6 weeks, but the whole country has hung flags. There must be tens of thousands that appear up to a month before. I can see about a dozen from my window.


As an outsider it would be very easy to sneer at this. Several would interpret the whole thing as propoganda. However, for someone whose country doesn't really have a complete National Day, it actually comes accross as a celebration of the country.

The largest Singaporean flag in the world - carried to town along East Coast Park.

The helicopter guard of honour gathering, also above East Coast Park