New name, format for national family celebrations

SINGAPORE — This year’s National Family Celebrations returns with a new and refreshed format, extending the month-long festivities to a year-long affair. It will also be renamed the Families for Life Celebrations (FFLC).

Themed Family Time. Precious Time., this year’s FFLC aims to provide a platform for multi-generational families to spend precious time together and participate in family-oriented activities. The inaugural FFLC will kick off with a carnival at the Singapore Sports Hub next weekend (Sept 13 and 14).

The Families for Life (FFL) Council will also organise monthly family picnics with activities like sand sculpting, “popiah” making, kite-flying and outdoor movie screening in various parks islandwide starting from next month till August next year, for families to bond and relax regularly.

A poll conducted by the FFL Council last month, indicated that seven out of 10 of the respondents felt that spending time with their family gives them most happiness. Also, only 53 per cent of the 872 respondents were satisfied with their amount of quality family time.

Speaking at the event, FFL Council’s chairman Ching Wei Hong said that the change in the format of the celebrations is in hopes of bringing regular attention to the topic of family instead of just being a sum of few key events.

“The poll results inspired the Council to promote the theme of “Family Time. Precious Time.” through FFLC. As members of families ourselves, we understand how the pressures of our fast-paced environment can affect quality family time.” said Mr Ching.

“With that in mind, we refreshed the FFLC into a year-long affair with two key goals...to promote the importance of having regular family time... (and) support our movement through a spectrum of simple, but meaningful activities that family can participate in through the year.

“By doing so, we hope to spur families to set aside and spend time more regularly together, beyond festive and special occasions.”