Autumn, Chingay, and Halloween... all here in Singapore!

I think if you are a first-time visitor to Singapore, you'll be very confused if you arrive at certain times of the year.

I am sure your travel advisers will have told you ad nauseam that Singapore's tropical climate is humid practically year-round with little temperature variations. Just be aware that certain months of inter-monsoonal change bring heavier afternoon showers.

But then you arrive and you see all these ads and other material:

You step out of your hotel and you feel the heat. Yet you find yourself confused by all these messages that there are seasons here and that it is autumn/fall now! I am a Singaporean and I am confused too.

You will of course also have learnt ahead of your trip here that while Singapore is multiracial, the Chinese are the majority race -- about 77% of the population. So if you come here during the earlier part of the year, during Chinese New Year, you will see all the trappings of Chinese-themed celebrations. But be prepared for one strange event... the Chingay street parade cum procession of gaily-decorated "floats":

Let me teach you a local word: rojak. It describes a mixed salad dish that is a favourite with all the racial groups here. It can also mean "mixed up with no identity, theme, etc". So here's a forum discussion of a Chingay parade some years back:

http://sgforums.com/forums/8/topics/117851?page=2

I wonder if the 2014 "edition" will still have the Brazilian samba dancers? The girls have been a perennial favourite with the ogling "Ah Peks" (older men).

Finally, if you have just arrived and plan to stay a while, get ready for our local version of Halloween, never mind that until maybe a decade ago, this Western practice was so alien to us that any mother's son garbed in a ghoulish Halloween costume would have been chased out of the house by her with the aid of a broomstick. Later, in penance, the miscreant lad would have had to kneel before the Goddess of Mercy.

It's a different matter today. I was at a shopping mall and its atrium had this very apt large banner: "Halloween... Let the madness begin!". So, if you are a Westerner here, sit back and enjoy the bizarre show.

Haha, raising kampung spirit! Er... kampung spirits, no?

Meanwhile, the Goddess of Mercy must be weeping. ST even provided an infobox on how Halloween started in the West:

So, don't leave home (your hotel) without putting on your autumn/winter togs, sweat like crazy in our humid weather, and walk around like a zombie. You won't be alone. The Halloween kampung spirits will make sure of that. The madness has begun.