Brunei marks National Family Day

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Brunei celebrated the country's sixth National Family Day on Sunday to strengthen ties and goodwill among family members.

Brunei

Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah(1st front) attends the celebration events for the National Family Day in Bandar Seri Begawan, capital of Brunei, May 7, 2017. Brunei celebrated the country's sixth National Family Day on Sunday to strengthen ties and goodwill among family members. (Xinhua/Jeffrey Wong)

The National Family Day, celebrated on the first Sunday of May, highlights the importance of having a family that is loving and united, with family members caring for each other, respecting each other, communicating well and bearing joint responsibility for the family, society and country.

The theme this year is "Caring Family, Prosperous Nation," which is intended to create an awareness on harmonious households as important foundational units for building a caring community - fundamental to the harmony of the country as well, according to Hajah Norlila, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.

As with previous years, this year's National Family Day began with blessing ceremonies throughout the main mosques nationwide in the morning. This was followed by a 16-km cycling event in the capital, which was also attended by the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and members of the royal family.

Among other events were family recreational activities including sports, family carnival, birds show as well as community activities throughout the day.