City of Sydney Chinese New Year Celebrations

Hi all,

I’m really proud to announce that I am an official Ambassador for Sydney’s Chinese New Year celebrations this year!

There’s lots to do in Sydney during the festival – the Belmore Park night markets, banquets, dragon boat races and even an enormous dragon parade of over 3000 (yes, that’s THREE THOUSAND) performers. You’ll even get to see me riding a giant dragon during the parade (which is something I’m very excited about).

For all the information about the http://www.sydneychinesenewyear.com/

But just to whet your appetite, here’s a few points about Chinese New Year this year, and how my family celebrates it:

• This year is the year of the Water Dragon.
• There are 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac and 5 elements (metal, water, wood, fire and earth), meaning that the year of the Water Dragon only comes around every 60 years. The last year of the Water Dragon was in 1952.
• The first day of the new year is 23 January 2012.
• Before the start of the new year, many people will clean the house, cut their hair, buy new clothes, pay off debts and try to begin the new year on the best possible footing.
• Each Chinese New Year period I also update all of my software, clean out my hard drive of unnecessary files, back up all of my data and generally just clean up my computer. This is my 21st century way of spring cleaning.
• During the new year, married people usually give red packets (‘hong bao’, or ‘ung pao’) to unmarried people.
• The new year festivities end on the 15th day of the new year known Chap Goh Meh. For the entire 15-day period of the new year, visitors to your home should be well taken care of. (When I was young, many of my Australian friends visiting my house during the new year period would be very happy when my Dad suddenly surprised them with a red packet.)
• On Chap Goh Meh, my family usually eats Yee Sang, a salad of raw fish, vegetables and fruits with a sweet dressing. Everyone around the table puts their chopsticks into the dish and tosses the salad high into the air. The higher the salad is tossed the more luck the year will bring.

So please come along and enjoy the festivities. Until then, Gong Hei Fat Choi, Xin Nian Kuai Le and HAPPY NEW YEAR!