Think October! What do we get? Yes, we are in the final quarter of the year. But what this also means is that it’s….. Finally Children’s Day!
Yes, our little Padawans, this is a day that we are reminded of your importance, not just for us to educate and nurture, but because you are our hope for the future. We celebrate this day that is meant to cheer on that’s the day on which we celebrate children across the length and breadth of our country. But what about this year?
4 September 2020 – What’s the significance of this date? It’s not Independence day, it’s not Singapore’s National Day. Yes, it marks the start of the much-anticipated September school holidays, but that’s only after we celebrate Teachers’ Day! As we enter into the month of September, it is time for us to pause and remember a group of unsung heroes of this year. Not all heroes wear capes. Some handle classes for students over zoom too! 🙂
As we welcome the nation’s 55th National Day, we inhale deeply because this has definitely been a challenging year for many of us. Undoubtedly what we would describe as an unprecedented year, no one saw Covid-19 coming, let alone expected the massive changes that this virus has made in our lives. The entire world has been struck and we are still reeling under its impact.
Hari Raya Haji is also known as the Festival of the Sacrifice and there is a story behind this. Prophet Ibrahim is an important character in the Islamic religion. He was a righteous man and a strong believer in God. In order to test Ibrahim’s loyalty, God asked the prophet to offer his own son Ishmael as a sacrifice. Prophet Ibrahim followed God’s command and had propped his son up for the sacrifice when God intervened to tell him that he did not have to sacrifice his son. Instead, Ibrahim is said to have made another sacrifice. It is the commemoration of Ibrahim’s sacrifice which is celebrated as Hari Raya Haji.
Hari Raya Puasa in the year of COVID The Holy Month of Ramadan is coming to an end, tomorrow in fact! Followers of Islam in Singapore as well as in other parts of the world are getting ready to welcome the month of Shawwal and with it the most auspicious day of Hari Raya Puasa…
Ramadan is the month of fasting. Followers do not take food while the sun is up, i.e from dawn to dusk. Fasting must be accompanied by a willingness to fast and do penance. After dusk, the followers take a meal called the Iftar.
As we all know, Valentine’s Day is a fixed day on the calendar and it falls on the 14th of February every year. No one has pinpointed the exact origin of this day, however, a good place to start with would be Ancient Rome. Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia where men drew the names of women from a jar and they coupled up for the duration of the festival (usually from February 13th-15th) or longer if the match was right.
8 February 2020 – What’s the significance of the date, you may ask. The date is definitely not as significant as the more familiar Valentine’s Day (14 February), but the 15th day of the Lunar New Year certainly has its importance, despite not being widely recognized by the increasingly cosmopolitan youth of today in Singapore.
Falling on the first day of the traditional Chinese calendar, the public holiday falls on any date between 25 January 2020 and 8 February 2020. The 15-day long festivities are filled with delicious food, firecrackers, parades, presents and well-wishes.
Academic pressures, anxiety about the future, fear of failure, peer pressure and the burden of expectations – these are some of the common issues the average Singaporean child faces today. Is it then a wonder that a large number of our kids end up being pessimists right from a young age? Pessimism can have a devastating impact on the well-being of your kids and can shut down opportunities in their lives.
