Racial Harmony Day Celebrations 2023 – Embracing Our Diversity!
- July 28, 2023 9:12 pm
Alhamdulillah, we had collaborated with Masjid An-Nahdhah to organise a Racial Harmony Day 2023 celebration at Masjid An-Nahdhah! This event was held on 16th of July, Sunday from 9am to 1pm.
This event was supported by the Marymount Harmony Circle, Hui Hui Cultural Association of Singapore, Harmony Centre & The Singapore Armed Forces Veterans’ League (SAFVL).
The event hoped to foster collaboration among people from different races and promote racial harmony through raising awareness about the commonalities between races. The event also allowed participants to experience diverse cultures firsthand through their food, clothing and other practices. Learn about them and understand them better – all while having fun!
The highly anticipated event kicked off at a bright and early 9am. A diverse array of people from all walks of life flooded in and joined the crowd. Participants proceeded to the registration cum souvenir redemption booth to collect their event tickets!
Participants even shared their pledges to racial harmony on the declaration board!
As the participants walked in, they were warmly greeted by scrumptious cultural food booths representing different races – Chinese, Malay and Indian. These booths to savour the flavours of the different delicacies.
Live stations at cultural delicacy booths serving delicious hot food? Count me in! It truly was a true feast for the senses, with all the aromas and flavours filling the air. It was exciting to see the chefs in action, preparing the mouthwatering dishes right before our eyes.
Let’s not forget about the various cultural activity booths that were also prepared!
We also had an exciting Dress Me Up (Photobooth) prepared in the centre of the Atrium for participants to try on the different ethnic wears and capture fun pictures of themselves too!
Later during the event, Ms Gan Siow Huang, Minister of State, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Manpower and Adviser to Marymount Grassroots Organisations kindly graced the event as the Guest-of-Honour. She had the opportunity to walk around the booths and try out the different delicacies and activities prepared too!
Furthermore, we recited the Religious Harmony Declaration, which was led by the interfaith leaders.
Apart from the booths arranged at the Atrium, we also had 3 other special segments.
#1 – Harmony Centre Tour
We had a guided tour around the Harmony Centre to learn more about some of the different religions and cultures practiced around the world.
#2 – Singapore Armed Forces Veterans’ League (SAFVL) Talk
Ex-regular personnels came down to engage the broader community on National Defence and Total Defence by sharing their personal stories and life experiences. They shared important lessons from Singapore’s tragic past (e.g. Japanese Occupation in the 1940s, MacDonald House incident, Konfrontasi) & current humanitarian missions worldwide. It was truly an amazing opportunity to learn from those who have truly lived it firsthand!
#3 – Blood Donation Drive
An-Nahdhah Mosque, together with the Singapore Red Cross Society & Rahmatan Lil Alamin Foundation (RLAF) organised a blood donation drive too, that allowed participants to donate blood. Indeed, it was in the spirit of One Blood, One Humanity!
The event finally came to an end at 1pm.
We are truly grateful for the amazing opportunity we had to spread the spirit of Racial Harmony to the wider community. It’s moments like these that remind us how important it is to come together and celebrate diversity.
As Allah (s.w.t) reminds us in the Al-Quran:
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَـٰكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍۢ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلْنَـٰكُمْ شُعُوبًۭا وَقَبَآئِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوٓا۟ ۚ إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ أَتْقَىٰكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌۭ
O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Aware.
[Surah Al-Hujurat Ayah 13]
Let’s continue to do our part to live peacefully and harmoniously with one another. With that, do look out for our other initiatives coming up soon to promote racial harmony! Until next time, the celebrations await!