A new public holiday to celebrate the family?

By Melissa Sim


MAKE the fourth Saturday of May a new public holiday to celebrate the family. This suggestion came from the National Family Council chairman Lim Soon Hock on Thursday.

Mr Lim shared his vision at a media conference where he announced that May 24 would be designated Family Day Out.

He then let on that his council has discussed the idea of lobbying for it to be a public holiday.

Whether this will become a reality very much depends on the response from Singaporeans to the first Family Day Out.

'At some point in time, we'll lobby for a public holiday,' he said.

To celebrate Family Day Out, 15,000 free rides on the Singapore Flyer, Singapore Ducktours, Hippotours and Rhinotours, will be given out. Each ride costs between $16 on regular days.

To qualify for the free tickets, families must go with a child under 13-years-old, or an adult above 55-years-old.

There will also be a carnival organised at the Singapore Flyer.

Families can also visit the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari and Jurong BirdPark at a discounted rate - for every two paying adults, one child can enter free.

Housewife Donna Cheng, 33, whose family got a taste of the free Ducktour on Thursday, said she was keen on the idea of Family Day Out.

'There are a lot of logistics to get the family out. With more activities planned, we can just take the kids there. It takes the thinking out of it,' said the mother of two.

She also added that going out as a family of five was generally quite costly.

National Family Week will also be re-branded as National Family Celebrations (NFC), which will have a host of activities for the family.


* source extracted from The Straits Times online