{"id":127591,"date":"2026-02-28T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/?p=127591"},"modified":"2026-02-25T20:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T09:57:13","slug":"blessings-lanterns-parades-welcome-geelong-to-the-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/news\/blessings-lanterns-parades-welcome-geelong-to-the-new-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Blessings, lanterns, parades welcome Geelong to the new year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>THE year of the horse has been welcomed in, as Lunar New Year celebrations are marked across Geelong.<\/p>\n<p>Sharing cultural traditions at Geelong City Market, the Chinese Association of Geelong welcomed revellers to enjoy the festivities.<\/p>\n<p>Lion dances were interspersed with traditional music, dragon displays and a bian lian (face-changing) performance.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2026\/02\/634359241_1806512758_28583.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"634\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lion dancers perform at the Lunar New Year Regatta hosted by Geelong Dragon Boat Club. Photo: Supplied<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Organiser Rolgliang He said the event was so well attended demonstrations had to be closed early.<\/p>\n<p>A small army of volunteers from the association led Chinese paper cutting, brush writing and lantern-making booths. Meanwhile, there was plenty of entertainment for attendees to enjoy.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2026\/02\/ChineseNewYear2026Ge_28595.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayci and Kylie Greig attend the Chinese New Year celebration in Geelong. Photo: Michael Chambers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This was the first public celebration for the local community in the past 10 years,&#8221; He said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We had two big lions, four kids-sized lions and one small dragon in the parade and then after the parade we asked the kids to come and hold the dragon and wear the lions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said the turnout was beyond expectations, but for those who missed out, there will be more to come at Pako Festa this weekend.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2026\/02\/ChineseNewYear2026Ge_28523.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Granhhi family get into the new year spirit at the Geelong Chinese New Year celebration. Photo: Michael Chambers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A week earlier, the Geelong Dragon Boat Club hosted the annual Lunar New Year regatta at the Barwon River.<\/p>\n<p>The first time the club has been selected to host the event, president Denis Jenkins said the event was a huge success.<\/p>\n<p>Hailing from China, the team sport has grown a cult following across the globe with close to 500 people competing at the Geelong regatta.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2026\/02\/ChineseNewYear2026Ge_28521.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"925\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chen Hai Chun demonstrates traditional calligraphy. Photo: Michael Chambers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Dragon boating is a Chinese sport and Lunar New Year is a big day in the calendar,&#8221; Jenkins said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;One of the Melbourne clubs is the Chinese Youth Society of Melbourne. As well as doing the dragon boating they&#8217;re involved in other traditional Chinese events and have a lion dance crew.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">&#8220;They doubled up and we had a half an hour of total entertainment in the middle of the day which was really good.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2026\/02\/ChineseNewYear2026Ge_28551.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chinese New Year celebrations with the Geelong Chinese Association. Photo: Michael Chambers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The boats were also blessed before they were launched, with the dragons awoken and fed, ready for competition.<\/p>\n<p>Lunar New Year began on 17 February, marking the beginning of 15 days of celebration.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2026\/02\/ChineseNewYear2026Ge_28599.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bian lian performer at the Chinese New Years celebration in Geelong. Photo: Michael Chambers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The horse is the seventh of the 12 Chinese zodiacs and represents confidence, resilience and progress.<\/p>\n<p>Rolgliang He said this new year will bring motivation, new opportunities and forward momentum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE year of the horse has been welcomed in, as Lunar New Year celebrations are marked across Geelong. Sharing cultural traditions at Geelong City Market, the Chinese Association of Geelong welcomed revellers to enjoy the festivities. Lion dances were interspersed with traditional music, dragon displays and a bian lian (face-changing) performance. &nbsp; Organiser Rolgliang He [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/news\/blessings-lanterns-parades-welcome-geelong-to-the-new-year\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":252,"featured_media":127600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-127591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Blessings, lanterns, parades welcome Geelong to the new year - Geelong Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Geelong Lunar New Year celebrations light up the city with lion dances, dragon boats, lanterns and vibrant cultural events.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/news\/blessings-lanterns-parades-welcome-geelong-to-the-new-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blessings, lanterns, parades welcome Geelong to the new year - 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