‘Ang Pau’ Festival of 2008

            The ‘Ang Pau’ Festival is an annual celebration organised by the students of Yu Hua in conjunction with the Lunar New Year. The celebration for the year 2008 took place on the 16^th of February.

            All of the performers rehearsed their moves for the very last time before the opening ceremony of the event. By six o’clock in the evening, the event began with a performance from the school’s Lion Dance Troupe. The lions lobbed mandarin oranges at the ecstatic students, followed by Mr. Chuah A Teng’s rain of mandarin oranges targeted at the audience.

            Up next was the singing of the national, state and school anthems. The grand opening ceremony took place soon after the singing – Mdm. Lee Sok Wah hit the gong three times, and thus began the 'wow-invoking' performances.

            The 24-Seasons Drummers took to the stages and presented a superb concert. Next in line was the school’s Cultural Dance Troupe. The dancers, dressed in pleasant-looking Chinese capes, entertained the crowd with a display of skills and grace. Following the Dance Troupe’s performance was a concert from the Harmonica Ensemble. The performers provoked screams of ecstasy from the students with their group acts.

            After the harmonica act, the dance troupe made their second appearance onstage, wowing the audience even more so in a different costume, with bright floral hair deco and hands armed with beautifully sewn, red handkerchiefs. The dancers hypnotised the audience with their gracefulness onstage.

            After that, Mdm. Lee Sok Wah received a souvenir from the chairperson of the organising committee, Mr. Lee Man Soon. The secretary of the organising committee then presented a souvenir to Datin Yeoh, while Mr. Chuah A Teng got a souvenir from the treasurer. Two emcees from the organising committee made a surprise appearance and introduced themselves. They ushered the audience to the canteen for a light meal. The teachers enjoyed their meals at the staff-room.

            After the break, the funfair started. The students proceeded to the ground floor of the new six-storey block for fun and games. Booths had been set up by the participating clubs and organisations to earn some money. The students had fun playing the games, and winning prizes in the process as well.

            By nine o’clock, the students returned to the hall for indoor activities. The lights were dimmed and the emcees went onstage to kick-start the activity. The first to perform were members of the Creative Motion Club. Together with the emcees, they danced along to the hip-hop music as a warm-up session. Later, they began calling up students from the audience to participate. There were cheers and jeers directed at the ‘lucky’ students. Their performance ended with the students dancing on the floor – it looked like a club scene.

            Later on, the Boy Scouts and their female counterparts, the Girl Guides, presented a fantastic dance act. The spirited dance movements got the audience dancing too. The Boy Scouts and Girl Guides then paired off for their second dance song. The audience did the same thing, and danced along. The third and last song on the playlist was ‘Ghengis Khan’, recorded in Cantonese. Once again, the act received active feedback from the students. They screamed in sheer enthusiasm.

            Into the last hour of the ‘Ang Pau’ Festival, an encore request from the students was entertained by the emcees and the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides’ performed to the song – ‘YMCA’. A lucky draw event was the next event and a few lucky students left the hall happily with gift prizes in hand. The festival ended by 11 o’clock at night.

 
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