Demos and dancing for Lunar New Year

THIS Lunar New Year, Sovereign Hill and the Chinese Australian Cultural Society Ballarat have brought in the Year of the Rat with plenty of celebrations.

Marking 12 years of collaborating, the outdoor museum and society planned activities for last Sunday and this Sunday, 2 February to immerse visitors in Chinese cultural traditions.

CACSB vice-president, Michelle Philips said the period is an important chance for Chinese people to reunite with family, share food, and for lions to chase away evil spirits.

Sovereign Hill has opened a pop-up grocery store with spices, facilitated Chinese cooking demonstrations in the camp, offered zodiac paper craft and script writing, and CACSB presented lion and dragon dances during street parades.

“We have a nine-person fire dragon… His name’s Xin Loong. Ballarat was known as New Gold Mountain, so we have new gold dragon,” Ms Philips said.

“The Chinese do festivals like no other.”

The celebrations are authentic to the gold rush era. The lions are Cantonese, with southern Chinese culture represented in the activities.