Grateful - 15 Feb: Togetherness

Just need to buy my mandarin oranges and I will complete my CNY shopping. And I can see my neighbours busy doing the same! So today I give thanks to:

• Neighbours. On my way out to get my CNY stuff, I met my 4th floor neighbour, M. She’s a chatty person and never fails to have a chat whenever we chance upon each other. Admittedly, I did find her a bit nosy initially, but over time I’ve accepted her as she is. And today, as we chatted, another neighbour from the 8th floor, Mr & Mrs K, walked by. They had arranged to head to the CNY bazaar for their CNY shopping! M asked if I wanted to join them, but Mrs K said, “I don’t think he wants la. He needs to head to the coffee shop for his coffee…” It’s a simple remark, but it tells me people notice, and people remember. Quite a warm feeling, I must say.

• Community. During major festivals, the sense of community feels very strong. And certainly, during CNY, the sense of community amongst Chinese Singaporeans is accentuated. In this regard, I’m grateful for the efforts over the last 4 decades to bring all dialect groups together. Today, we are all Chinese Singaporeans. It doesn’t matter if we are Hokkien (or its many sub-variants), Teochew, Hakka, Cantonese, Hockchew, Henghua, etc… we all speak Chinese and we celebrate CNY similarly. This contrasts with Singapore a century ago, when Chinese of different dialect groups fought each other…

• Country. There’s a certain feeling of warmth and inclusivity I get whenever we celebrate major festivals, be it CNY, Hari Raya, Deepavali, or even Christmas! The mood is highly energising and, in a huge way, brings people together. We don’t really just celebrate as a community, we celebrate as a country! So we have strangers walking by and wishing each other Happy Chinese New Year, or Selamat Hari Raya, or Happy Deepavali - whatever the festival may be to celebrants. It’s so nice to be living in Singapore, where people celebrate each other, regardless of race, language, or religion. I am thankful to be born here. I am blessed.

Tomorrow is CNY eve. And we count down to CNY, I give thanks to Singapore that celebrates multiculturalism, the community I live in, and my neighbours.