Singapore has increasingly become a truly multicultural society over the past 44 years since our independence with a lot to celebrate in terms of our shared history and heritage. Since the early 19th century, immigrants from the Malay Archipelago, China, India, and many other parts of the world have settled in Singapore in pursuit of a better life. People of different backgrounds worked and lived side by side, and bonded together, creating the Singapore that we know today. This still holds true today. And nowhere is this cultural diversity more pronounced than in our heartlands, and in the form of our next-door neighbour who may have come from other countries outside Asia but have made Singapore home.

With our increasingly hectic lifestyles however, many of us have stopped interacting with our neighbours, preferring to seek refuge behind our closed doors. However, this lack of communication and interaction has brought forth new problems, such as misunderstandings and a lack of tolerance arising from the lack of knowledge of each other's cultural practices and norms.

Singaporeans have lost common spaces and platforms to play together and get to know each other better. So, to help bridge this gap, the Singapore HeritageFest this year hopes to create events and programmes so that more Singaporeans, PRs and New Citizens can get together and know each other better. The festival, which will run from 15 to 26 July, will celebrate the cultures of our neighbours (i.e. all the communities that call Singapore home, and not just incumbent Singaporeans). SHF 2009 is aimed at providing everyone in Singapore including citizens, residents and tourists of all ethnic and religious backgrounds, the opportunity to explore and celebrate this city-state's rich multicultural heritage together. For new residents, it is about understanding Singapore society, culture and practices; for citizens, it is about getting to know the broader community better, making friends and building stronger bonds with neighbours.

The "neighbour" emphasis this year differentiates the festival from previous years as NHB will be focusing more on engaging communities and building bonds. SHF 2009 activities and events will be centred on engaging three broad communities, mainly children and youths in schools, the heartlanders, as well as the online community.

Chief Executive Officer of the National Heritage Board Mr. Michael Koh said: "Singapore residents hail from many shores and we have a multicultural heritage. We share many common cultural practices such as the wearing of bright colours for auspicious events, the practice of spring cleaning before major festivals; and values like filial piety, respect to elders and an emphasis on education.

"SHF 2009 embraces the cultures of all communities in Singapore including the Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian cultures and also those of Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar and beyond. It is our hope that this year's festival will raise awareness of Singaporeans and Residents about the different cultures around us and encourage them to find out more about one another in terms of music, food, costumes, festivals and customs. A simple way to do this would be to get to know your neighbours better- who they are and what their cultures are. Hence this year's tagline "Who's Your Neighbour?”

To find out more about the cultures of our neighbours who have made Singapore their home, besides visiting the festival in July, people can also visit the festival's official website which now sports a fresh new look. For more information, please visit www.heritagefest.sg

About Singapore HeritageFest

Singapore HeritageFest (SHF) is now in its sixth year. Since the inaugural festival in 2004, there has been a steady increase in visitorship. A record 1.6 million people visited the festival in 2008 and of those who attended, 90% of our survey respondents reported having an enjoyable time.

Over the past six years, the festival's specially-curated exhibitions, treasure hunts, heritage trails, competitions, movie screenings and cultural performances have worked towards raising awareness and appreciation of Singapore's diverse heritage. Over 80% of the respondents also indicated that the festival had been helpful in raising their sense of heritage awareness, desire to learn more about the cultures of the other ethnic groups, and in strengthening their sense of belonging to the nation.

The festival picked up the "Uniquely Singapore" Award in the 21st Tourism Awards in 2006 and won the Bronze Award in the 2007 Promotion Marketing Awards of Asia.