Chinese New Year - Year of the Rooster

Spring Chicken

Chinese New Year. What does it mean to celebrate Chinese New Year in Australia? Well, let me start with what it doesn’t mean.

It no longer means buying wacky fun-sized fireworks off street vendors at the markets. Growing up, fireworks were legal and available for consumer purchase in my hometown and it was a ritual for my late Grandfather to take me on a fireworks shopping spree.

It no longer means the gathering of families and relatives (and extended relatives) on CNY Eve under one tiny roof to prepare for the festivities together. Kids roam from room to room like speeding bullet trains. Aunties catch up on the latest gossip and uncles smoke cigarettes while watching ping pong or basketball on TV. In Australia, with only my immediate family here, the house is significantly quieter and less crowded.

So, then what does celebrating CNY mean in Australia?? Well, it is continual of traditions. It is the chance to gather not just family, but friends that have been brought together because we live in this beautiful land we now call Home. It is still, and always will be about food, laughter, celebration and love. Hence, here are some of the photographs that capture the 2017 Lunar New Year celebrations for me…