What is Singapore Day?

Organised by the Overseas Singaporean Unit, it is an annual event held in various cities around the world to engage Singaporeans living overseas.

Singapore Day had been staged in Shanghai (2011), New York (2012), and Sydney (2013). This year’s installment was held on March 29 in London.

Here are 3 things the press reported about the event:

i. More than 16% of the crowd was made up of Singaporeans from across Europe, who converged at Victoria Park in London for the chance to meet old friends, shake hands, enjoy free hawker food and be entertained by local artistes including We Are Singaporeans host Hossan Leong, The Noose’s Chua En-Lai, comedy trio The Dim Sum Dollies, musicians Jack & Rai and rock band The Great Spy Experiment.

Some came from as far as Munich (Germany) and Nice (France).

ii. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who was also present at the event, was mobbed by a surging crowd wanting to take pictures with him. PM Lee also took a selfie of himself on the concert stage with hosts Gurmit Singh and Michelle Chong.

iii. Hawkers were flown to London to serve an authentic slice of home to the 10,000-strong crowd of hungry and homesick Singaporeans.

Here are 6 more things that you were not told about Singapore Day 2014:

1. The duration of the queue for a bowl of free mee pok, each individually prepared on the spot was close to 3 hours!

Yet for many overseas Singaporeans, the moment of euphoric shiok-ness as they gratefully received their noodles was worth every single minute.

2. PM Lee is a self-confessed “selfie newbie”, who himself acknowledged that he did not manage to capture as much of the crowd as he had hoped. Still, you got to get him top marks for effort!

3. Kudos to 75-year-old (!) Mr Peng Ah Ba, who despite his age, overcame jetlag to treat the crowd to his famous chwee kueh.

4. Our Prata masters looked cool in shades and jackets.

5. Despite our surface awkwardness, the fact that we still tremble slightly whenever we say “I love you” to our parents, and not calling home frequently enough, we all love our families deeply.

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6. You can take a Singaporean out of Singapore, but you can’t take Singapore out of a Singaporean. Go on, I won’t judge if you shed that tear. We all know there’s hope for the future of our nation.

Top photo from here

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