Named after the lemongrass once grown here, Geylang Serai is where the Malay east still shops, feasts and celebrates, loudest of all in the nights before Hari Raya.
Serai is Malay for lemongrass, once grown widely on the Alsagoff family's Perseverance Estate; Geylang may come from kilang, a mill, perhaps for coconut oil. Orang Laut, the sea nomads, settled by the Geylang River in the 1840s, and in 1910 Singapore's first tramline had its eastern terminus here. From the 1950s the population became predominantly Malay, and Infopedia calls the district the Malay emporium of Singapore.
Redevelopment from the early 1980s brought HDB blocks, but life still gathers around Geylang Serai Market, opened in 1964 and rebuilt in 2009. During Ramadan the streets are lit up, a tradition begun in 1985, and a vast bazaar draws people of every background for snacks, kueh from home cooks and the evening breaking of the fast.
