福 house.

Abstract

Traditional festivals, having been passed down through generations, are the outward representations of a set of beliefs in the collective culture of a group of people. In Singapore, where cultural traditions, especially that of the ethnic Chinese community, struggle to co-exist with the ideas of individualism and modernity that globalization brings, it is increasingly more challenging to retain the essence of the rich heritage in festival practices.

This project explores what co-relation lies between the dwindling interest for festivals, with the state of well-being of a family, given that kinship ties have come under increasing strain in the last decade. Through endeavours to understand and establish the empirical values are embedded within traditional Chinese festivals that are in relation to family cohesion, this work aims to build a bridge upon the foundation of festivals that would draw the family closer, starting from the standpoint of youths today.