Back to where it started: 5 things about NDPs at the Padang
SINGAPORE - The Republic's annual birthday bash will return to the Padang on Aug 9 this year, as the country commemorates its bicentennial.
The British carved out the space by flattening the land there, creating the wide, green space that we know today.During the colonial period, Chinese New Year, royal birthdays, jubilees and coronations, and occasionally Thaipusam, were commemorated at the green space with displays of fireworks. In 1959, when Singapore became self-independent, the first Yang di-Pertuan Negara, Yusof Ishak, who went on to become the first president of the Republic, was inaugurated at the Padang.3. What makes National Day Parades at the site significant?
Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said that returning to the Padang this year will be special, as it will reflect how far the country has come, 200 years after Sir Stamford Raffles landed here in 1819. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, too, performed in that parade as a member of the combined school brass band.