Sunday, September 19, 2010

Chinese Dragon Dance at the Neighborhood HDB

We walked to the neighborhood HDB to see what the Mid-Autumn Festival was all about.  An HDB is like a small village of buildings (vaguely like condos).  Most HDB's here in Singapore are like low cost housing unit's built for Singaporeans to purchase.  There are quite a few (dare I say hundreds?) of families that live in the complexes.  I say complexes because most of the HDB's have multiple units; mulit-level flats.  Generally, in the center of the HDB complex, there is a large courtyard where everyone can sit & chat (much like a park), children can play and everyone can come and go from the shopping areas.  Often there are water features in the courtyard for the children to play while the elders chat.  

Most HDB's have shopping; small convenience stores, produce wet markets with a small selection of fresh (and inexpensive) veggies, fruits and meats, there are also small family owned hardware stores, food courts and even a few small restaurants.  In the complexes, there are also schools, day care centers, Drs, Dentists, and traditional medicine shops.  See?  Like a small village within and city!  The idea, I think, is that Singaporeans can live in the HDB's housing and never have to leave their little community.  Very cool, isn't it?  You can read more about it in the link above, but there are thousands of different HDB communities in Singapore; each named differently so you can distinguish your 'village' from another.

We have an HDB within a block of us just as most areas of Singapore do.  We walked over to enjoy the Mid-Autumn Festival that the HDB was hosting, but not knowing at all what to expect.  As we closed our condo door and locked it, we heard the rhythmic traditional Chinese Drum sounds drifting into our foyer.  When we walked into the courtyard, we knew instantly it was going to be a lot of fun.  They were having a Chinese Dragon Dance when we walked in.  It was fun watching the dragon being swung around on poles by a bunch of young men.  It actually made it seem to take a life of its own.  We enjoyed standing back watching the action:














As you can see, I have not mastered the art of taking night (moving) pictures yet, but I will get it.  It is taking a bit more time than I would like because I am trying to learn it on my own.  I hate it when I miss the really good things... Anyway, the Chinese Dragon Dance has Chinese (go figure) music to it.  I recorded this so you could hear it:




Pretty darned neat, isn't it?  Obviously, my camera wasn't focused before I clicked record... that is one downside to the Nikon D-90.  Must focus first.  But you can still see what the dance was like.  It was great entertainment, the dragon interacting with the crowd and prancing around the entire courtyard.  There are some things about Singapore that you just cannot replace... the Dragon and Lion Dances are just a couple of things I will miss when we leave.

While we were watching the Dragon Dance, I noticed a line of coloring pages behind me:







The children of the 'village' participate in the festival in many ways.  It is so fun to look at all they made.  Next to the coloring sheets were the lanterns, but I will have to give you just a taste of what is to come:


Now I must get ready for the mosquito police... they are coming to our condos, and I am double checking to be sure I don't have any standing water anywhere (however, I am very careful about not ever having any) and the two places I have it in are flushed properly.  Yes, they check the toilets too!

And then, I will go to my bahasa Indonesian lesson!  Have a great day/night or in between.  See you tomorrow  :-)

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