Happy Chinese New Year - Year of Dog 2018

Happy New Year to all my Chinese friends out there.

The 2018 Chinese New Year begins on Friday, February 16. The celebrations last for over two weeks in China. Interesting enough, like Indian Astrology Chinese base their calculation on the lunar calendar and that's how, it falls on different dates each year, usually between January 21 and February 20.

The celebrations are an explosion of light and sound, involving bell ringing, lighting firecrackers and watching traditional lion dances. Chinese families gather together for a reunion dinner on New Year's Eve, and clean their houses to sweep away bad fortune on New Year's Day.

Traditionally, kids would be given red envelopes stuffed with 'lucky money' and positive wishes on New Year's Day. These days, some techie savvy teens now have red envelope apps, so their relatives can transfer cash digitally.

P.S: During my bike ride this morning, I saw few tents and stalls being erected in South Bank area and hoping to get some snaps on my way back home.

Chinese New Year 2017

Happened to witness these Dragons and spectacular costumes on the eve of Chinese new year celebrations at the Footscray Vegetable Market. Also called as the spring festivals, it is one of the important festivals of China and many of the people of Chinese origin, all around the world. So this year 2017 is called as the year of the Rooster and January 28^th is the first day of the Chinese Lunar Calendar. So there was traditional Chinese Music being played which I think are Cymbals and the each of Dragon I saw consisted of 4 persons, walking and dancing to the rhythmic sound of Cymbals. And there were others dressed in the traditional Chinese attire accompanying the two Dragons that I saw, a Yellow and a Red one. Surely, the Dragons changed the usually busy and business market place to that of fun and frolic.