Racial Harmony Day

My son said "why don't you write about Racial Harmony Day?"....

Background: Racial Harmony Day is celebrated annually on 21 July in Singapore. The event is to commemorate the 1964 Race Riots, which took place on 21 July 1964. Racial Harmony Day also represents a day for schools to reflect on, and celebrate Singapore's success as a racially harmonious nation and society built on a rich diversity of culture and heritage. In schools all across the nation on that day, students are encouraged to be dressed in their traditional costumes such as the Cheongsam and the Baju Kurung. Traditional delicacies are also featured in the celebrations. Traditional games such as Kutih-kutih and zero point are played in schools, where inter-class competitions are sometimes organised.

Schools are also encouraged to recite a declaration on religious harmony during the celebrations.
We, the people in Singapore, declare that religious harmony is vital for peace, progress and prosperity in our multi-racial and multi-religious Nation.
We resolve to strengthen religious harmony through mutual tolerance, confidence, respect, and understanding.
We shall always
Recognise the secular nature of our State,
Promote cohesion within our society,
Respect each other's freedom of religion,
Grow our common space while respecting our diversity,
Foster inter-religious communications,
and thereby ensure that religion will not be abused to create conflict and disharmony in Singapore

My son wrote "We had a School fun fair. It sold different kinds of food. And people that had traditional costumes wore them to school. Racial Harmony is important to our country because if Singapore has only one religion you would not have different kinds of food, and games, languages and different friends. "

We may take our racial integration for granted, but there are some points that not many communities in the world can claim to know of:-

1. We have at least tasted traditional cuisine from each of the other racial group and even grown up to love some.
2. If asked, we could tell a tourist where to eat the best Indian, Chinese and Malay food and probably could even order the foods in the respective native language.
3. We know where to find at least one place of worship from each religion and know how to respect them.
4. We know the difference between Hari Raya Haji adn Hari Raya Puasa, Chinese New Year, Deepavali and Thaipusam.
5. From each language, we will definitely know at least one word, not counting curse words.
6. Most of us have tasted bandung, chin chow and lassi and drink them on a regular basis.
7. We have all visited Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Melayu at least once and probably could tell you what we love about the area.
8. Elder strangers are 'uncle' or 'aunty' regardless of race as a form of respect.
9. Our circle of friends and colleaques will definitely have someone of another race and we probably know that our Hindu friends do not eat beef, our Muslim friends cannot eat pork and some of our Buddhist friends are vegetarian.
10. We share our food and all know the meaning of makan.

It is about tolerance for one's race and religion....maybe it will one day be a World Wide observance..