Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Christmas in Singapore

So a few people have asked if Christmas is celebrated in Singapore. My response is 'What holiday isn't celebrated in Singapore?' Since we arrived here, we have seen this country celebrate the Muslim festival of Hari Raya, the Hindu festival of Deepavali and now Christmas. I'm already looking forward to my first Chinese New Year in February. This place is a mix of cultures and religions and no recognized holiday of its people seems to go uncelebrated.



If the commercialized side of Christmas didn't exist, I'm not sure if Singapore would have embraced it so dearly. Orchard Road (which is like the 5th Avenue of Singapore and known for its shopping) hangs thousands of lights and every store plays Christmas music. We even noticed that some of the malls in Malaysia embrace the commercial side of the season. The largest blue plexi-glass snowman I have ever seen was on display at a mall in Malaysia. Did I mention that Malaysia is mainly a Muslim country?


Oh - and every Santa Clause figure we saw (especially in Malaysia) was always playing a saxophone... ?












Orchard Road at night


Our tree




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